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Science 27 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5799, pp. 642 - 645
DOI: 10.1126/science.1132772
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Reports

Thrice Out of Africa: Ancient and Recent Expansions of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

Charles W. Whitfield,1,2,3* Susanta K. Behura,1 Stewart H. Berlocher,1,3 Andrew G. Clark,4 J. Spencer Johnston,5 Walter S. Sheppard,6,7 Deborah R. Smith,8 Andrew V. Suarez,1,3,9 Daniel Weaver,10 Neil D. Tsutsui11,12

We characterized Apis mellifera in both native and introduced ranges using 1136 single-nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped in 341 individuals. Our results indicate that A. mellifera originated in Africa and expanded into Eurasia at least twice, resulting in populations in eastern and western Europe that are geographically close but genetically distant. A third expansion in the New World has involved the near-replacement of previously introduced "European" honey bees by descendants of more recently introduced A. m. scutellata ("African" or "killer" bees). Our analyses of spatial transects and temporal series in the New World revealed differential replacement of alleles derived from eastern versus western Europe, with admixture evident in all individuals.

1 Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, IL 61801, USA.
2 Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA.
3 Program for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA.
4 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
5 Department of Entomology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
6 Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
7 Center for Reproductive Biology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
8 Entomology program, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
9 Department of Animal Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA.
10 Bee Power, LP, and Bee Weaver Apiaries, Inc., Navasota, TX 77868, USA.
11 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
12 Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: charlie{at}life.uiuc.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)