Protein pattern of the honeybee venoms of Egypt

Abstract

The venom composition of the Egyptian honeybee Apis mellifera lamarckii, the Carniolan honeybee Apis mellifera carnica and a hybrid with unknown origin were analyzed using electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). All venoms shared six bands with molecular weights of 97.400, 67.400, 49.000, 45.000, 43.000 and 14.000D. Bands with molecular weights of 81.000, 56.000, 37.000 and 10.000D are characteristic for the Egyptian subspecies. Bands with molecular weights of 12.000 and 8.000 are characteristic for the Carniolan subspecies, while bands with molecular weights of 32.000, 20.000 and 2.835D are characteristic for hybrid bees. It was noticed that Egyptian bee venom and the hybrid bee venom have strong similarities in their biochemical composition.


KEY WORDS: social insects, toxins, biochemistry, electrophoresis.


Egyptian Journal of Biology Vol.4 2002: 142-146