Editing Africanized bee (section)

===African variants===
There are two lineages of the East African lowland subspecies (''[[Apis mellifera scutellata]]'') in the Americas: actual matrilineal descendants of the original escaped queens and a much smaller number that are Africanized through hybridization. The matrilineal descendants carry African mtDNA, but partially European nuclear DNA, while the honey bees that are Africanized through hybridization carry European mtDNA, and partially African nuclear DNA. The matrilineal descendants are in the vast majority. This is supported by DNA analyses performed on the bees as they spread northwards; those that were at the "vanguard" were over 90% African mtDNA, indicating an unbroken [[matriline]],<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/339213a0 | pmid = 2566123 | title = Neotropical Africanized honey bees have African mitochondrial DNA | journal = Nature | volume = 339 | issue = 6221 | pages = 213–5 | year = 1989 | last1 = Smith | first1 = D. R. | last2 = Taylor | first2 = O. R. | last3 = Brown | first3 = W. M. | bibcode = 1989Natur.339..213S| hdl = 2027.42/62690 | s2cid = 4321598 | url = https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62690/1/339213a0.pdf }}</ref> but after several years in residence in an area interbreeding with the local European strains, as in Brazil, the overall representation of African mtDNA drops to some degree. However, these latter hybrid lines (with European mtDNA) do not appear to propagate themselves well or persist.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG113 |id=ENY-114/MG113 |title=African Honey Bee: What You Need to Know |website=Edis.ifas.ufl.edu |publisher=University of Florida |access-date=2011-01-05 |archive-date=2008-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623084759/http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG113 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Population genetics analysis of Africanized honey bees in the United States, using a maternally inherited genetic marker, found 12&nbsp;distinct mitotypes, and the amount of genetic variation observed supports the idea that there have been multiple introductions of AHB into the United States.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Szalanski, A.L. |author2=Magnus, R. |year=2010 |title=Mitochondrial DNA characterization of Africanized honey bee (''Apis mellifera'' L.) populations from the USA |journal=Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=177–185 |url=http://comp.uark.edu/~aszalan/szalanski_magnus_ahb_usa_jar_2010.pdf |doi=10.3896/IBRA.1.49.2.06 |bibcode=2010JApiR..49..177S |s2cid=35085058 |access-date=2011-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725082000/http://comp.uark.edu/~aszalan/szalanski_magnus_ahb_usa_jar_2010.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A newer publication shows the genetic admixture of the Africanized honey bees in Brazil. The small number of honey bees with African ancestry that were introduced to Brazil in 1956, which dispersed and hybridized with existing managed populations of European origin and quickly spread across much of the Americas, is an example of a massive biological invasion as earlier told in this article. Here, they analysed whole-genome sequences of 32&nbsp;Africanized honey bees sampled from throughout Brazil to study the effect of this process on genome diversity. By comparison with ancestral populations from Europe and Africa, they infer that these samples had 84% African ancestry, with the remainder from western European populations. However, this proportion varied across the genome and they identified signals of positive selection in regions with high European ancestry proportions. These observations are largely driven by one large gene-rich 1.4&nbsp;Mbp segment on chromosome 11 where European haplotypes are present at a significantly elevated frequency and likely confer an adaptive advantage in the Africanized honey bee population.<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=Ronald M. Nelson |author2=Andreas Wallberg |author3=Zilá Luz Paulino Simões |author4=Daniel J. Lawson |author5=Matthew T. Webster |title=Genomewide analysis of admixture and adaptation in the Africanized honeybee |journal=Molecular Ecology |volume=26 |issue=14 |pages=3603–3617 |doi=10.1111/mec.14122 |pmid=28378497 |year=2017 |bibcode=2017MolEc..26.3603N |hdl=1983/9a0f0728-cf3f-4eb8-8375-620db9a19ca0 |s2cid=13542834 |url=https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/genomewide-analysis-of-admixture-and-adaptation-in-the-africanized-honeybee(9a0f0728-cf3f-4eb8-8375-620db9a19ca0).html |type=Submitted manuscript |hdl-access=free }}</ref>