These genes are completely independent of stinging behavior. Hunt says these findings may allow breeders and scientists to reduce the spread of the Africanized traits in the Western Hemisphere. Ultimately it might be possible to clone the gene through map-based cloning so that we can better understand how this gene affects stinging behavior. The research is published in the March issue of the scientific journal Genetics. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Africanized bees are just one of several subspecies of honey bees.
They were introduced to the Western Hemisphere by an accidental release from a Brazilian geneticist in 1956 and spread rapidly through South and Central America. Since then they have spread steadily north, entering Mexico in 1988. By 1991, almost 100 percent of the honey bees in Mexico carried the aggressiveness gene. The Africanized bees reached the United States in 1991 and are now found in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. There the spread of the Africanized bees has stalled.