Morphometric and molecular identification of Apis mellifera: a review of integrated approaches for population and evolutionary characterization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55204/trc.v6i2.e694Keywords:
Apis mellifera, Africanization, traditional morphometrics, geometric morphometrics, mitochondrial DNA, COI-COIIAbstract
The identification of Apis mellifera is a fundamental tool for understanding the diversity, population structure, and evolutionary origin of managed and wild honey bees. This species exhibits broad intraspecific variability associated with geographic differentiation, environmental adaptation, anthropogenic movement, hybridization, and introgression among lineages and subspecies. In the Americas, the introduction of European bees and the subsequent expansion of bees with African ancestry gave rise to Africanized hybrid populations in several regions; however, this process is not uniform across the continent. In this context, the present review analyzes the usefulness, limitations, and complementarity of the main morphometric and molecular methods used for the characterization of lineages, subspecies, and hybrid populations of A. mellifera. The value of traditional morphometrics, geometric wing morphometrics, and molecular markers—especially mitochondrial DNA and the COI-COII region—is examined as tools for interpreting phenotypic variation, maternal origin, and population differentiation processes. The reviewed evidence indicates that wing morphometrics is an accessible, reproducible, and useful tool for discriminating population affinities, while mitochondrial DNA allows the identification of maternal lineages, although it does not by itself reflect biparental genetic composition. Therefore, the integration of morphometric and molecular approaches provides a more robust interpretation of population structure, especially in tropical, high-Andean, and insular regions. This review highlights the need to strengthen regional studies in Ecuador, Cuba, and other Latin American settings by incorporating nuclear markers, wing databases, and environmental metadata to support conservation programs, genetic selection, and sustainable beekeeping management.Downloads
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