Defining bee races
The different bee races are determined using biometric traits (coloration, indices, etc.) as well as molecular markers (mitochondrial and nuclear). Defining races allows us to understand the biogeography of the honey bee.
There is a center of dispersal located north of the Persian Gulf from which honey bees colonized Europe. Pleistocene glaciations led to the isolation of populations and to the formation of distinct races. After the retreat of the ice, the different races interbred again: the conservation and breeding of pure races therefore currently runs counter to natural processes.
However, conserving pure races makes it possible to benefit from the heterosis effect (heterozygous individuals) through simple crossbreeding. Breeding in pure lines does not necessarily result in better conservation of genetic biodiversity compared to crossbreeding, as crosses represent rearrangements of pre-existing genes.
Pure-breed selection promotes biodiversity if it allows the preservation of certain alleles in a given context (e.g. swarming tendency, aggressiveness, frame adherence). In this case, the objective is to create a “bank of rare alleles” that may prove necessary in the future.