title: Variability of the honey bee mite Varroa destructor in Serbia, based on mtDNA analysis.
abstract: Only two mitochondrial haplotypes (Korea and Japan) of Varroa destructor, the ectoparasitic honey bee mite, are known to be capable of infesting and successfully reproducing in Apis mellifera colonies worldwide. Varroa destructor (then called Varroa jacobsoni) was observed in Serbia for the first time in 1976. In order to obtain insight into the genetic variability of the mites parasitizing A. mellifera we analyzed 45 adult female mites sampled from nine localities dispersed throughout Serbia. Four fragments within cox1, atp6, cox3 and cytb mtDNA genes were sequenced. The Korea haplotype of V. destructor was found to be present at all localities, but also two new haplotypes (Serbia 1 and Peshter 1) were revealed, based on cox1 and cytb sequence variability. The simultaneous occurrence of Korea and Serbia 1 haplotypes was observed at five localities, whereas Peshter 1 haplotype was identifed at only one place.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Bul. Oslobodjenja 18, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. gajicb@vet.bg.ac.rs
authors.forename: Bojan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gajic
authors.forename: Zeljko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Radulovic
authors.forename: Jevrosima
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevanovic
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kulisic
authors.forename: Milos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vucicevic
authors.forename: Predrag
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simeunovic
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Stanimirovic
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001516:Bees / Q000469:parasitology*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D055771:Serbia; D057077:Varroidae / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial