The Journal of Heredity 2001:92(6)
© 2001 The American Genetic Association 92:519-521
Brief Communication |
Partial Cytochrome b Sequences for Six Hymenoptera of the Eastern United States
From the Bee Research Laboratory, USDA, ARS, Bldg. 476, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705. Portions of this research were completed as part of an Oakland Mills High School, Columbia, MD, mentor program (Gardner).
Address correspondence to Anita M. Collins at the address above or e-mail: collinsa{at}ba.ars.usda.gov.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes have been commonly used to determine honeybee subspecies relationships. To see if these markers would also be useful for comparisons of other Hymenoptera, we collected workers of six local species: Vespa crabro, the European hornet; Bombus impatiens, a bumblebee; Vespula germanica, the German yellow jacket; Polistes fuscatus, a paper wasp; Halictus ligatus, an alkali bee; and an unspecified Megachile, a leafcutting bee. MtDNA was isolated and digested with six endonucleases (AvaI, BglII, EcoRI, HindIII, HinfI, XbaI). The digested DNA was electrophoresed and visualized on agarose gels with comparison to a standard fragment marker and similarly treated honeybee mtDNA. The fragments obtained were also purified and sequenced. Phylogenetic relationships between six wasp and bee species, Apis mellifera, and several other similar aculeate Hymenoptera were determined. Newly defined DNA sequences were posted to GenBank (AF281169–AF281174).