| Genetic characterization of Varroa destructor collected from honey bees in Khorramabad, Lorestan province, western Iran |
| Paper ID : 1025-IPCA5 (R1) |
| Authors |
|
Marzieh Sarlak-Goudarzi1, Hamidreza Shokrani *2 1Graduate Student in Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran. 2Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran. |
| Abstract |
| Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on honey bees and is one of the major concerns for beekeeping industry. These mites can infest Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, and Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee. The species was identified as a separate species from Varroa jacobsoni after DNA analysis. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic variability of mites collected from honey bee colonies in Khorramabad city. For the genetic characterization of mitochondrial genomes, samples of adult females of V. destructor were collected from apiaries in Khorramabad city. The cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene region (COXI) of the mitochondrial genome of 20 V. destructor mites was amplified by PCR using the primers COXF and COXRa. Three samples showing positive amplifications were selected for sequencing. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA11 program with the maximum-likelihood method. Haplotype determination was performed using DNA sequencing and analyzing of amplified region of the mitochondrial COXI gene. All examined DNA samples were amplified and show expected band of 570 bp. The analyzed sequences were tested in BLAST with data deposited in GenBank, showed about 97–99% nucleotide similarity with the available sequences of V. destructor in NCBI database. All three analyzed samples were belong to the haplotype K. According to the phylogenetic analysis, examined mites of this study showed low genetic diversity. The obtained results indicate the presence of haplotype K in honey bee colonies in Khorramabad, previously was reported also from other parts of the country. |
| Keywords |
| Varroa destructor, COXI, Sequencing, Haplotype, Khorramabad |
| Status: Abstract Accepted |
