In this area, the endemic subspecies A. It belongs to the African lineage, one of the four described evolutionary lineages in honey bees. Despite a long beekeeping tradition and several recorded European introductions, few studies have been carried out on the diversity and proportion of honey bee subspecies.
Islands genetic diversity was compared to newly sampled populations from Madagascar, continental African and European populations. Results: African lineage haplotypes were found in all islands except for Rodrigues. Both genetic markers revealed i a new private A I mitochondrial group shared by the SWIO archipelagos and Madagascar distant from continental populations; ii the private African haplotypes for each island suggested diversity radiation in the archipelagos; iii the detection of the Comoros archipelago as a possible contact area between insular and continental African populations.
The exotic European C and M lineages were only detected in the Mascarene archipelago, but striking differences of proportion were observed among islands. Merely 4.
Similarly, 24 of the 34 found ND2 haplotypes were novel which included six haplotypes particular to the SWIO populations. Keywords: A. Publication types Research Support, Non-U. Substances DNA, Mitochondrial.
