STUDY OF THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF HONEY BEE POPULATIONS (APIS MELLIFERAL.) INKAZAKHSTAN

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) possess high biological, ecological, and economic importance and serve as a model organism for studying the evolution of social behavior. They also play a key role in plant pollination in natural ecosystems. In this study of genetic differentiation of A.melliferapopulations in Kazakhstan, nine STR loci were analyzed in 107 samples from six regional populations. The most informative was locus AP043, which demonstrated a high level of polymorphism. Allelic diversity analysis revealed the highest effectivenumber of alleles in the Turkestan population (Ne= 5.991 ± 0.785) and the lowest in the West Kazakhstan and Zhambyl regions (Ne= 2.958 ± 0.409 and Ne= 2.982 ± 0.420). The highest observed heterozygosity was recorded in Almaty population No2 (0.604 ± 0.086), and the lowest in Almaty population No3 (0.500 ± 0.069). Among the studied microsatellite markers, locus B124 showed the highest polymorphism, while locus A028 showed the lowest. Population structure analysis indicated an optimal cluster number of K = 5, suggesting the presence of five genetically distinct groups with pronounced regional characteristics. Specifically, Almaty populations No1 and No2 form a single cluster, whereas bees from the Turkestan, Zhambyl, and Akmola regions show genetic proximity to each other. The results confirm significant genetic differentiation of honey bee populations in Kazakhstan and highlight the need to consider the high genetic diversity of the Turkestan population when developing conservation and sustainable management strategies for bee resources across different regions of the country