Absence of Wolbachia in the workers of Asian honeybee, Apis cerana indica

Wolbachia is a group of cytoplasmically inherited bacteria that can cause reproductive alterations in arthropods including parthenogenesis, reproductive incompatibility and feminization of genetic males. Wolbachia are found in a well studied group of insects, but there is a lack of data on their distribution. Workers of the honeybee sub species Apis cerana indica, collected from different parts of Karnataka, India were screened by PCR for Wolbachia, because this endosymbiont has been implicated in causing thelytoky in other Hymenoptera. In the present communication, we report the absence of Wolbachia endosymbiont in the workers of honeybee collected from different geographic locations of Karnataka using Wolbachia specific 16S rDNA polymerase chain reaction enzymes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v5i1.5230 International Journal of Life Sciences Vol.5(1) 2011 19-24