ABSTRACT
Specific conditions of the honeybee life honeybee life require the presence of effective mechanisms of antiinfectious protection whose one of the most important components are defensins--the family of antimicrobial peptides. In the honeybee, defensins are present in the form of two different peptides--defensin 1 and 2 that are similar between each other only by 55.8 %. Defensin 1 synthesized in salivary glands plays an important role in social immunity, whereas defensin 2 synthesized by cells of lat body and lymph is an important factor in the system of the honeybee individual immunity. Defensins are inducible, are controlled by interaction of Toll and Imd signal pathways and have a large specter of antimicrobial action.
Subject(s)
Bees/immunology , Defensins/immunology , Immunity, Innate/physiology , Insect Proteins/immunology , Animals , Fat Body/immunology , Hemolymph/immunology , Salivary Glands/immunologyABSTRACT
The COI-COII intergenic region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was studied in local honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera) L. populations from the Middle and Southern Urals. Analysis of bee colonies in these regions revealed apiaries enriched in families descending from A. m. mellifera in the maternal lineage. These results confirm the suggestion of preservation of A. m. mellifera refuges in the Urals and provide grounds for work on the preservation of the gene pool of this bee variety, valuable for all Russia.
