Standing Commission of Bee Biology MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF INDIGENOUS APIS MELLIFERA CARNICA POLLMANN IN SLOVENIA

Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera carnica) and C phylogenetic lineage of honeybees as a whole, is genetically poorly studied, therefore, the genetic structure of Carniolan bee population from Slovenia has been assessed by mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses. Honeybees were collected from 269 localities in Slovenia; bee samples from Greece, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and France were included in the analysis as out-groups. Slovenian samples are characterized with a low level of genetic differentiation in COI and COII region of mtDNA. They were fixed for one newly found mtDNA haplotype, designated as C2C. The same haplotype was found in Croatian and Polish out-group and in some German and some Czech bee samples. Low level of variability of the Carniolan bee population in Slovenia was observed also for all six microsatellite loci studied, showing very homogenous structure of indigenous Slovenian bee population. Populations from Croatia and Czech Republic did not differ significantly from Slovenian one based on microsatellite analysis. On the other hand, high genetic differentiation was observed towards the A. m. macedonica population, also expressing specific mtDNA haplotype, designated as C2D. The already described C1 haplotype was found in Austrian and in some samples of Czech out-group. The only haplotype of non-C phylogenetic lineage origin was characteristic for French sample of bees (A8 haplotype). The results as such indicate that Carniolan bee from Slovenia still represents one of the major sources of the A. m. carnica indigenous gene pool.