Genetic characteristics of the Gray Mountain Caucasian Bee <i>Apis mellifera caucasica</i>

In this study we present the results of a comparative genetic analysis of bees of the Apis mellifera caucasica subspecies with the subspecies A. m. carnica and A. m. mellifera. We performed polymorphism analysis of nine microsatellite loci (Ap243, 4a110, A24, A8, A113, A88, Ap049, A28, and A43) and determined the haplotypes of the tRNAleu-COII locus. Analysis of the genetic structure of representatives of three subspecies of honey bees, widespread in Russia, showed a significant level of their differentiation even when using a small set of microsatellite loci. An assessment of the prevalence of tRNAleu-COII haplotypes in the three studied samples showed that for A. m. caucasica the predominant haplotype was C2j.