Differentiation of Melipona quadrifasciata L. (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) subspecies using cytochrome b PCR-RFLP patterns

Abstract

Melipona quadrifasciata quadrifasciata and M. quadrifasciata anthidioides are subspecies of M. quadrifasciata, a stingless bee species common in coastal Brazil. These subspecies are discriminated by the yellow stripe pattern of the abdominal tergites. We found Vsp I restriction patterns in the cytochrome b region closely associated to each subspecies in 155 M. quadrifasciata colonies of different geographical origin. This mitochondrial DNA molecular marker facilitates diagnosis of M. quadrifasciata subspecies matrilines and can be used to establish their natural distribution and identify hybrid colonies.

Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism among populations of Meliponaquadrifasciata quadrifasciata Lepeletier (Apidae: Meliponini) from southern Brazil

“…This mobility shift was reported as a consequence of double-strand conformation polymorphism (DSCP) due to base substitutions (Hagerman 1990). The same phenomenon has been verifi ed in other studies on bees for the 16S and CytB regions (Collet et al 2007, Souza et al 2008. Nonetheless, the COI/COII region digested with Ase I and Hinf I, and the ND2 region digested with Ase I presented distinct restriction patterns between samples from Prudentópolis (Paraná state) and Santa Catarina state, and exclusive haplotypes were identifi ed.…”

“…Polymorphisms between M. quadrifasciata quadrifasciata and M. quadrifasciata anthidioides were detected for COI region digested with Hinf I and Nde I, and CytB region digested with Dra I. Souza et al (2008) analyzed a large sample of M. quadrifasciata and reported RFLP patterns generated by CytB region after Vsp I digestion closely associated to each subspecies. Although the latter study presented a strong correlation between molecular markers and subspecies, authors could not identify molecular markers associated to the nest geographic origin.…”

“…In this paper, we detailed the methodology and discuss the results which were briefl y reported as unpublished data in a review article (Arias et al 2006), focusing in detecting mtDNA polymorphisms among samples of M. q. quadrifasciata from three localities (here called as populations) of southern Brazil in an attempt to identify haplotypes closely associated to geographic sites. Moreover, as an effort to improve the data described by Souza et al (2008), seven mtDNA regions were analyzed and a large number of restriction enzymes were utilized.…”

Genetic structure of Partamona helleri (Apidae, Meliponini) from Neotropical Atlantic rainforest

“…Molecular studies have also been extended to other bee taxa, such as the sweat bee Halictus rubicundus (Soucy and Danforth, 2002) and the solitary orchid bees from the Euglossini tribe (Dick et al, 2004). However, for the tribe Meliponini there are only few population and evolutionary studies applying mtDNA analysis (Costa et al, 2003;Quezada-Euán et al, 2007;Rasmussen and Cameron, 2007;Souza et al, 2008;Batalha-Filho et al, 2009;Francisco and Arias, 2009).…”

Development of a species-diagnostic marker and its application for population genetics studies of the stingless bee Trigona collina in Thailand

“…A 750-bp RAPD marker from OPE07 was present in the former, except stingless bees from northern Minas Gerais but was absent in the latter subspecies (Waldschmidt et al, 2000). Restriction analysis of cytochrome b with VspI could also differentiate these subspecies (Souza et al, 2008).…”