Honey contains intrinsic markers that can be used to identify its origin. In this study, we used the honey as source of honey bee DNA and developed a test to detect the entomological origin of the honey by identifying the Apis mellifera subspecies using an informative mitochondrial DNA region. We then applied this method for the authentication of A. m. siciliana and A. m. iberiensis honeys. DNA was extracted from 60 honey samples produced in several Italian regions (including Sicily and close minor islands), Portugal, Spain and other countries. PCR primers were designed to amplify a fragment of 85 bp (A. mellifera C lineage; highly frequent in A. m. ligustica, the Italian honey bee that is frequently implicated in human introductions worldwide), or 138 bp (M lineage; characteristic of A. m. mellifera) or 152 bp (A lineage; of the honey bee subspecies of African origin). All sampled Sicilian honeys (that were from A. m. siciliana) showed only the fragment of 152 bp, confirming its expected origin. All honeys from A. m. iberiensis showed only the fragment of 152 bp or only the fragment of 138 bp or both, in agreement with the hybrid origin of Iberian honey bee populations. All other analysed honeys showed the fragments of 85 bp or 85 + 138 bp, suggesting that they were produced from other subspecies. This authentication system could be a useful tool to support conservation genetic programs that rely on marketing links between honey bee genetic resources and the honey they produce.

蜂蜜包含可用于识别其来源的内在标记。在这项研究中，我们将蜂蜜用作蜜蜂DNA的来源，并开发了一种检测方法，该方法可通过使用信息丰富的线粒体DNA区域识别蜜蜂Apis mellifera亚种来检测蜂蜜的昆虫学起源。然后，我们将此方法应用于A. m。的身份验证。siciliana和A. m。iberiensis蜂蜜。从意大利几个地区（包括西西里岛和邻近的小岛），葡萄牙，西班牙和其他国家/地区生产的60个蜂蜜样品中提取DNA。设计PCR引物以扩增85 bp的片段（A. mellifera C谱系;在A. m。ligustica中非常常见，通常与全世界人类引进有关的意大利蜜蜂）或138 bp（M谱系；A。m。mellifera的特征）或152 bp（A谱系；非洲起源的蜜蜂亚种）。所有采样的西西里蜂蜜（来自A. m。siciliana）仅显示152 bp的片段，证实了其预期来源。所有的蜂蜜A.米 利比里亚结果表明，与伊比利亚蜜蜂种群的杂交起源一致，仅显示了152 bp的片段，或者仅显示了138 bp的片段。所有其他分析的蜂蜜均显示85 bp或85 + 138 bp的片段，表明它们是由其他亚种产生的。该认证系统可能是支持保护遗传计划的有用工具，该计划依赖于蜜蜂遗传资源与其生产的蜂蜜之间的营销联系。