BIOCHEMICAL VARIABILITY BETWEEN VENOMS FROM DIFFERENT HONEYBEE (APIS-MELLIFERA) RACES

1. The comparison of molecular exclusion cromatography profiles of ven oms from sting apparatuses of Apis mellifera ligustica, Apis mellifera adansonii and Africanized honey-bees in Sephadex G-100 revealed both qualitative and quantitative differences. 2. The venoms from A.m. ligu stica and A.m. adansonii presented, respectively, three and two peaks characteristic of each sub-species, while Africanized honey-bee was ch aracterized by the absence of eight peaks common to the former. 3. The polypeptides with M(r) in the range from 100,000 to 7500 Da correspon d respectively to 62.0%, 66.6% and 68.7% of total proteins from the ve non of A.m. ligustica, A.m. adansonii and Africanized honey-bees, whil e the peptidic fraction with M(r) range from 4100 to 2000 Da correspon ds to 11.4%, 32.4% and 10.2% of venom protein, respectively.