Utilizing bioinformatics to detect genetic similarities between African honey bee subspecies

Various honey bees, especially subspecies Apis mellifera, occur in Africa and are distribute across the continent. The genetic relationships and identical genetic characteristics between honey bee subspecies in Africa (African bee subspecies) have not been widely investigated using sequence analysis. On the other hand, bioinformatics are developed rapidly and have diverse applications. It is anticipated that bioinformatics can show the genetic relationships and similarities among subspecies. These points have high importance, especially subspecies with identical genetic characteristics can be infected with the same group of pathogens, which have implications on honey bee health. In this study, the mitochondrial DNA sequences of four African subspecies and Africanized bees were subjected to the analyses of base composition, phylogeny, shared gene clusters, enzymatic digestion, and open reading frames. High identical base composition was detected in the studied subspecies, and high identical results from all tests were found between A. m. scutellata and A. m. capensis followed by A. m. intermissa and A. m. monticola. The least genetic relationships were found between A. m. lamarckii and the other subspecies. This study presents insights into the genetic aspects of African bee subspecies and highlights similarity and dissimilarity aspects. Also, Africanized honey bees derived from A. m. scutellata showed high genetic similarities to other African bees, especially A. m. capensis. Additionally, specific primers to identify these subspecies were designed and tested.