> Honey Bee Genome Project Reveals Possible African Origin of All Honey Bees

> Peter and all: How will this effect how perception is about AHBs by the way, not that I haven't been saying this for years in the
Saga I did?

Dee,
You may have misunderstood the significance of this finding. Finding
remnants of African genes in European bees is not the same as proving
there is no difference in the European and African types. For example,
it has been thought for years that the human race originated in
Africa, too. That doesn't mean we are all African Americans here in
the US. The populations left Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago
and hence we have many races with quite different characteristics.

There is a world of difference in the appearance of, say a Norwegian,
whose ancestors left Africa maybe a million years ago, and someone who
can trace his roots to Africa in a few generations. Same with African
and European bees. The European bees have lived so long in a temperate
climate that they developed the ability to overwinter in cavities,
which tropical bees do not need to do-- as well as other
characteristics that make them quite different. Some African and
European lines have been separate so long that they are quite nearly
different species. In the case of the African and Asian bees, they ARE
separate species.

Following DNA research, you will see that the DNA of organisms today
(people, bees, whatever) contains a sort of historical record of their
ancestry. We share characters with our human brethren throughout the
world, as well as chimps, gorillas, etc. It can be shown when these
branches diverged, by studying the number of markers we have in common
and the number we don't. So European bees may have some African
markers, but these are traces from the very distant past when they
crossed into Europe, maybe at Gibraltar. But they are no anywhere near
as closely related to African bees today as the bees in Arizona are.

* * *

> The African and European bees are supposed to be the same species and should therefore be completely genetically compatible. Our studies show that there are a number of barriers to gene flow from European bees into the African bee population but that the converse is not true, European bees are vulnerable to hybridization with African bees. This asymmetry in hybridization combined with low survival of the hybrid bees evidently leads to a rapid elimination of European bees and their genetic traits. (Orley Taylor)

* * *

> The Africanized honeybee (AHB) has a unique tolerance to V. destructor that is not present in the A. mellifera European honeybee (EHB), from which the AHB hybrid was derived. This unexpected tolerance mechanism provides a valuable insight into the evolution of  host-parasite interactions.

> It is unlikely that AHB evolved Varroa tolerance after the AHB hybrid was created as a result of increased hygienic behaviour or brood attractiveness because such factors are unlikely to lead to a stabilized mite population. Instead, tolerance has probably resulted from
preexisting resistance characteristics fortuitously coming together in
the hybrid. (Stephen J. Martin and Luis M. Medina)

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