Consanguinity of Apis mellifera in the Bee Research Centre Apiary, Cuba
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Abstract
Populations of honey bee for the production in Cuba have been subjected to a breeding program for over 20 years, with the aim of selecting and setting production phenotypes. However, queen rearing large scale and widespread propagation of a selected batch can lead to decreased effective population size, making them more susceptible to the deleterious effects of inbreeding. The apiary Bee Research Center of Cuba is a national reference apiary for rearing queen bees. Given this, the present study aimed to determine the degree of inbreeding in this apiary using microsatellite loci. 10 bees from each hive, which were preserved in 70% ethanol were taken. The DNA was extracted from tissue chest by the Chelex method. Three microsatellite loci were amplified; A7, A24 and A113. The amplified samples were run on 6% polyacrylamide gel under denaturing conditions. The mean relatedness indicated that over half of all individuals tested have no family relationship, showing a low degree of inbreeding. This result supports good management and has been maintained in this apiary.
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