Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on June 3, 2005.

Genetics, Vol. 170, 1653-1665, August 2005, Copyright © 2005
doi:10.1534/genetics.104.035030

Africanization in the United States

Replacement of Feral European Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) by an African Hybrid Swarm

M. Alice Pinto^*,,1, William L. Rubink, John C. Patton, Robert N. Coulson^* and J. Spencer Johnston^*

^* Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2475
Centro de Investigação de Montanha, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5301-854 Bragança, Portugal
Rubinks, Edinburg, Texas 78540
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258

¹ Corresponding author: Centro de Investigação de Montanha, Escola Superior Agraria Campus de Santa Apolónia, Apt. 172, 5301-854 Bragança, Portugal.
E-mail: apinto{at}ipb.pt

The expansion of Africanized honeybees from South America to the southwestern United States in <50 years is considered one of the most spectacular biological invasions yet documented. In the American tropics, it has been shown that during their expansion Africanized honeybees have low levels of introgressed alleles from resident European populations. In the United States, it has been speculated, but not shown, that Africanized honeybees would hybridize extensively with European honeybees. Here we report a continuous 11-year study investigating temporal changes in the genetic structure of a feral population from the southern United States undergoing Africanization. Our microsatellite data showed that (1) the process of Africanization involved both maternal and paternal bidirectional gene flow between European and Africanized honeybees and (2) the panmitic European population was replaced by panmitic mixtures of A. m. scutellata and European genes within 5 years after Africanization. The post-Africanization gene pool (1998–2001) was composed of a diverse array of recombinant classes with a substantial European genetic contribution (mean 25–37%). Therefore, the resulting feral honeybee population of south Texas was best viewed as a hybrid swarm.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. K. Behura Analysis of Nuclear Copies of Mitochondrial Sequences in Honeybee (Apis mellifera) Genome Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2007; 24(7): 1492 - 1505. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. F. Harrison, J. H. Fewell, K. E. Anderson, and G. M. Loper Environmental physiology of the invasion of the Americas by Africanized honeybees Integr. Comp. Biol., December 1, 2006; 46(6): 1110 - 1122. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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