DNA evidence of the origin of Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans in the Americas

Abstract

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to examine possible origin of Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans in the Americas. Among 64 primers screened, 2 primers provided variation which was informative for this study. All V. jacobsoni collected from the United States had the same banding pattern to that of mites collected from Russia, Morocco, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal (Russian pattern). This banding pattern was different from the pattern found for mites collected from Japan, Brazil, and Puerto Rico (Japanese pattern). The Japanese pattern lacked a 766-bp band found in the Russian pattern (OPE-07). With primer OPP-03, the Russian pattern had a distinct band at 442 bp not found in the Japanese pattern. Two bands located at 675 and 412 bp were specific to the Japanese pattern. These results suggest that the V. jacobsoni of the United States is probably predominantly Russian in origin (via Europe), while the V. jacobsoni of Brazil and Puerto Rico are probably predominantly Japanese in origin.