Avaliação de marcadores microssatelites MRJPS em colonias de Apis mellifera africanizadas selecionadas para a produção de geleia real

Abstract

In this study, the genetic variability of loci Mrjp3, Mrjp5 and Mrjp8 in Africanized A. mellifera selected for royal jelly production and the alleles fixation during the process of selective breeding were evaluated. The nurse worker bees were collected from seven matrix colonies that have been selected since 2006 for royal jelly production. Genomic DNA was extracted from 20 nursing honeybees from each analyzed matrix and was quantified and amplified, totaling 140 individuals. The three analyzed loci were polymorphic and produced a total of 16 alleles, and the effective number of alleles for the locus Mrjp3 was 3.81; also, four new alleles were identified for the locus Mrjp5. The average observed heterozygosity was 0.4905 indicating a high degree of genetic variability of the loci analyzed. The high values of FIS for Mrjp3, Mrjp5 and Mrjp8 (0.4096; 0.1102; 0.2847, respectively) indicate a excess of homozygotes. The values of heterozygosity and FIS show that the genetic variability of the queens decreased for the loci analyzed, with an excess of homozygotes, but the large number of drones not genotyped that fertilize the queens jeopardize the production of homozygous genotypes for the locus Mrjp3. It will be necessary to conduct matings of queens using instrumental insemination with known genotype drones to increase the efficiency of Africanized A. mellifera bees improvement programs.