Hi Peter
>> If you get alleles that are specific other races that is where the
>> trouble starts.
>
> Dave,
> I am not sure what you are thinking of in this second statement. Maybe some
> examples would help to show us what you mean.
I apologise for a simplistic example, but it may help a few to
understand what an allele actually is...
Dna is strung together in sequences, there are locations along it's
length that can accept different versions of relatively short coded
groups that are known as alleles, in UK we pronounce this allylees, in
US you say aleels. The different versions of these alleles that can
occupy a single location (locus) will decode to some specific feature of
the bee, we might have 15 versions (strings of code) that can occupy
location XXg on a particular chromosome which is associated with the
length of the femur, each of these different strings can fit and
whichever one happens to be present will define the length of the femur
in that individual bee.
So in the bee's genome there are millions of locii that equate to things
like femur length, colour of overhair on a tergite, length of overhair
on a tergite, transparency of chitin, number of facets on a compound eye
and so on.
But not all features of a bee are governed by single alleles at one
location, some feature may be the result of a number of different locii
that act in concert.
I can give another simplistic example, of our 15 alleles that are to do
with femur length they will all be different so the length of the femur
is defined by whichever version is present, BUT there may be another
locus close by that applies a multiplier to the locus that holds femur
length. The alleles that go in this locus may affect the result by a
factor of 1.1 or 1.2 or 1.1122 or any other number, so now we have two
variables that affect the length of the femur. we can also say that
there is 'linkage' between the two locii.
So a femur length of 2 mm may be the result of an allele of length that
codes for 2 mm and another multiplier allele of zero, giving a 2 mm
measurable feature OR we could have an allele that codes for 2.2 mm and
a multiplier allele representing 0.9090909 giving the same physical
measurement of 2 mm.
Getting back to the specificity of certain alleles to individual races...
If we look at particular locii in all races we find a collection of
alleles that can fit, some alleles exist in some races and not others,
while some may occur in all races and some may exist one specific race only.
From this, if we are studying an AMM bee and we find an allele that can
only exist in Ligustica, then we know that this specimen is definitely a
hybrid.
There is a write up of a study done at Copenhagen university on a
specific test, but as I only have a paper copy and do not know where it
is currently 'filed' it will take some time to find, when I do find it,
I will post the locii concerned and allele identities on this list.
Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)
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