I posted this earlier in the year but it seems relevant. There is no doubt a
genetic underpinning to behavior, but we are somewhat far from being able to
identify it with the genetic tests available. That is not to say that
behavioral traits linked to particular bee types cannot be observed and
identified directly; this is the information that is used to label the
various bees in first place. Russian bees should perform as advertised,
regardless of what genes they may carry. In fact, Marla Spivak and others
are moving to identifying bees by behavior rather than race, creed, or
national origin.

> We expected to find two, or perhaps three, QTLs [quantitative trait loci]
of major effect on hygienic behavior. However in our experiment we did not
find any evidence for such genes. Instead we found that the behavior seems
to be inherited in a more quantitative manner. Thus although our
quantitative genetic analysis of repeatability and the QTL analysis confirm
Rothenbuhler’s findings that hygienic behavior has a strong genetic
component (as expected by the success of selection for the character), we
cannot confirm the existence of two genes of major effect that control
hygienic behavior.

"Seven suggestive quantitative trait loci influence hygienic behavior
of honey bees"

Keryn L. Lapidge · Benjamin P. Oldroyd · Marla Spivak

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************