A simple, non-radioactive DNA fingerprinting method for identifying patrilines in honeybee colonies

Primers were derived flanking a microsatellite motif of the cloned Z-locus. The PCR product of the Z-locus was variable in size and up to four alleles were found in a sample of 11 workers within one colony. Using the combination of three loci, the Z, the Q (both linked to the sex locus) and a royal jelly protein gene (RJP57-1) we were able to discriminate five patrilines in the II worker sample. Using the well established microsatellite technology, however, seven and six patrilines could be identified. The technique may enable laboratories which lack an isotope facility and equipped with only a PCR thermocycler and agarose gel apparatus to study the polyandrous mating system of the honeybee in a variety of different contexts. (C) Inra/DIB/AGIB/Elsevier, Paris.