The complete mitochondrial genome of the hybrid honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis × Apis mellifera scutellata, from South Africa

Amin Eimanifar; Rebecca T Kimball; Edward L Braun; James D Ellis

doi:10.1080/23802359.2016.1250132

The complete mitochondrial genome of the hybrid honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis × Apis mellifera scutellata, from South Africa

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2016 Nov 11;1(1):856-857. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2016.1250132.

Authors

Amin Eimanifar¹, Rebecca T Kimball², Edward L Braun², James D Ellis¹

Affiliations

¹ Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
² Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.

Abstract

We characterized the complete mitogenome sequence of the South African hybrid honey bee Apis mellifera capensis × Apis mellifera scutellata using genome skimming. The mitochondrial genome was a circular molecule 16,340 bp in length with a gene organization identical to that of the other A. mellifera mitogenomes. The base composition is 43.2% A, 9.7% C, 5.6% G, and 41.5% T, with an A + T content of 84.7%. The mitogenome had 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs, two ribosomal RNAs genes, and one control region. All PCGs were initiated by ATT, ATG, ATA, and ATC codons and were terminated by a TAA stop codon. The heavy strand encodes four PCGs, eight tRNAs, and two rRNAs. The light strand encodes nine PCGS and 14 tRNAs. A phylogenetic analysis of the PCGs reveals a close relationship between this hybrid honey bee and other Apis spp.

Keywords: Apis mellifera capensis × Apis mellifera scutellata; Hybrid honey bee; South Africa; mitogenome; next-generation sequencing.