Research articles
ScienceAsia 48 (2022):ID 115-118 |doi:
10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2022.015
Malate Dehydrogenase allele frequencies in the commercial
honey bee (Apis mellifera) population in Thailand reflect
those in source populations
Thitipan Meemongkolkiata,b,*, Julianne Limb, Chanpen Chanchaoc, Benjamin P. Oldroydb
ABSTRACT: In the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations, cytosolic malate dehydrogenase (cMDH) allele frequencies are correlated with the environmental temperatures. The Slow and Fast alleles predominate in hot climates; the Medium allele predominates in cold climates. We wondered whether natural selection has had anything to do with
the Medium allele in the imported exotic A. mellifera population in Thailand. We genotyped workers (n = 1032) from 86 commercial colonies from three regions. Three alleles: Fast, Medium, and Slow, were detected. Over 96% of the Thai A. mellifera are either homozygous for the Slow or heterozygous for the Fast allele; and the Medium allele has the lowest frequency (c.a. 10%) in all sampled population. This might be indicative of selection against the Medium allele. However, as the cMDH allele frequencies in the Thai A. mellifera are similar to those seen in the source populations in the United States and Northern Italy, it might also be that the observed frequencies are reflective of frequent imports from the United States, and that natural selection is unable to overcome the effects of migration.
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| a |
Program in Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 Thailand |
| b |
Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory, School of Life and Environmental Sciences,
University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia |
| c |
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 Thailand |
* Corresponding author, E-mail: lek_tues_ti@hotmail.com
Received 4 Nov 2020, Accepted 26 Jul 2021
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