Isozyme and morphometric analyses of natural populations of the Asian honey bee (Apis cerena Fabricius) from different geographical areas in the Philippines

Date

10-1999

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Biology

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Rita P. Laude

Abstract

Montalbo, Maynoll D. 1999. College of Arts and Sciences. University of the Philippines, Los Banos. Isozyme and Morphometric Analyses of Natural Populations of the Asian Honey Bee (Apis cerana Fabricius) from Different Geographical Areas in the Philippines.

Major Adviser: Dr. Rita P. Laude

Isozyme and morphological variability in natural populations of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana F. from three different geographical areas in the Philippines designated as, Area I (Batangas, Cavite and Bay,Laguna), Area II (Cagayan de Oro) and Area III (Bicol), were detected using starch-gel electrophoresis and morphometric analysis. Isozyme analysis revealed polymorphism in four enzymes encoded by 13 presumptive loci: four isoloci for alkaline phosphatase; three for acid phosphatase; four for esterase; and two for malate dehydrogenase. Only ALPH-2 of Area III and MDH-2 of Area I exhibited monomorphism. From the 13 presumptive loci observed in the Area I population, only 8 were detected in the Area II population and 7 were present in the Area III population. In terms of the presumptive allelozymes, EST-4 was controlled by two autosomal codominant alleles, S (slow) and F (fast) and MDH-2 by 1 allele, S. The rest of the loci were governed by 3 alleles namely, S, M (moderate) and F. Chi-square test of the genotype frequencies relative to the number of presumptive loci in each of the areas showed a goodness-of-lit to the expected frequencies under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for 8 loci of Area I bees, 2 of Area 11 and 5 of Area III population. Based on the proportion of polymorphic loci (P) and average heterozygosity (H) genetic variability was highest for Area II population. Populations from Area I and Area III showed low genetic and genotypic identities and high genetic distance suggesting the occurrence of a possible mechanism of subspeciation. A dendrogram based on gene frequencies showed the distinctness of the Area I bees. Morphometrics using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the 31 characters (composed of 11 wing venation angles, 15 size related variables and 5 secondary parameters) from the three areas yielded three possible clusters of bees namely: Bicol ; Cagayan de Oro; Batangas-Cavite; and Bay (the Area designations are not used due to the presence of subgroups). Discriminant Analysis of the a priori grouping resulted to 100% correct classification of the bees and confirmed the pre-assigned clusters. The Cagayan de Oro population had the highest measurement for most of the size-related characters while the Bicol population had the lowest. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of the variables showed significant homogeneity in most of the wing venation angles and variation in most of the size-related variables. A dendrogram of the clusters showed two major branches, one composed of the Area I and the Cagayan de Oro populations and another composed of the very distinct Bicol population. The isozyme and morphometric analysis of Apis cerana consistently showed considerable distance between populations from Area I and Area III. However, Area population cannot be distinguished as a cluster separate from the Area 1 and Area III populations. The Batangas-Cavite subgroup in the Area I population in the morphometric analysis is not supported by the isozyme analysis due to small sample size.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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