Investigation of homozygosity and the number  of sex alleles and its effect on productivity of colonies in 18th generation of Iranian honeybee (Apis mellifera meda) breeding plan

Zahedi, Heidar; Sepehri, Rahimeh; Tahmasbi, Gholamhosein

doi:10.22117/jesi.2025.367203.1666

Investigation of homozygosity and the number of sex alleles and its effect on productivity of colonies in 18th generation of Iranian honeybee (Apis mellifera meda) breeding plan

Document Type : Paper, Persian

Authors

¹ Department of Aninmal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

² Honey bee Science Research Department, Research Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

10.22117/jesi.2025.367203.1666

Abstract

The genetic mechanism of sex determination in honeybees has created limitations in breeding systems. In selective breeding populations, the possibility of increasing the homozygosity of sex alleles and producing diploid drones is higher. This leads to a decrease in the population and production of bees. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating this and its effect on the population and honey production, on the colonies of the 18th generation of the country's comprehensive honeybee breeding plan. Based on the obtained results, the average homozygosity and number of sex alleles was respectively 20.08% and 4.98. The regression analysis of data showed that the homozygosity of sex alleles has a negative and significant effect on population (-0.07) and honey yield (-0.2). So that, with a one percent increase in homozygosity, 0.07 frames of population and 0.2 kg of honey production decrease. The correlation between homozygosity and population (-0.76) and honey production (-0.75) was negative and significant. The number of sex alleles has decreased by 3 alleles compared to the first generation of this population, but the decreasing trend has almost stopped from the eighth generation onwards. It seems that increasing the number of paternal colonies from 20 to 40 (in the middle of the project) had a positive effect on the number of sex alleles. Therefore, by continuously controlling homozygosity and preventing the decrease in the number of sex alleles in breeding populations, it is possible to prevent the decrease in colony performance.

Graphical Abstract