Variability and Structure of the Repetitive Region of the Major Royal Jelly Protein Gene mrjp3 in Honeybee Apis mellifera of Different Evolutionary Branches

An assessment of the genetic diversity of the microsatellite locus mrjp3 in honeybee of European Apis mellifera subspecies was conducted. Differences in the frequency of alleles for the mrjp3 locus were found in honeybees of different evolutionary branches. Allele "529" was found to be specific for the Apis mellifera mellifera, evolutionary branch M, while alleles "406", "518", and "485" were characteristic of the southern subspecies of bees (A. m. carnica, A. m. carpatica (some researchers consider this breed as a derivative of A. m. carnica), and A. m. caucasica; evolutionary branches C and O, respectively). A high correspondence of the studied nucleotide sequences (>=99% identity) with the reference sequences (Genbank) was established indicating a high conservation of the repetitive region of the mrjp3 gene in A. mellifera subspecies inhabiting different geographic regions of Europe and Siberia. Locus mrjp3 is of considerable interest for further study as a candidate marker for differentiation of bee subspecies.