INVESTIGATION ON GENETIC VARIABILITY IN HONEY BEE POPULATIONS FROM BULGARIA, GREECE AND SERBIA

Genetic variation of honey bee populations from Bulgaria (local type A. m. rodopica), Greece (A. m. macedonica) and Serbia (A. m. carnica) was studied on 6 enzymic systems (MDH, ME, EST, ALP, PGM and HK) corresponding to 6 genetic loci. Allozyme analysis revealed that all loci studied were polymorphic in most of the populations studied. Four alleles were detected at MDH-1 locus, three - at ME, five - at EST-3, three - at ALP, two - at PGM and three - at HK. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.163 (Serbia) to 0.236 (Bulgaria) and from 0.248 (Greece) to 0.263 (Serbia), respectively. Nei's genetic distances range from 0.012 (between Greece and Bulgaria) to 0.157 (between Serbia and Bulgaria). In UPGMA dendrogram there are two clusters formed. Bulgarian and Greek populations are clustered together in first branch and Serbian population is grouped in the second cluster.