Abstract: The cDNA library was constructed with heads of 8-day old workers of Apis cerana cerana. cDNA sequence of major royal jelly protein 2 (MRJP2), which includes 1 605 bp and an open reading frame (ORF) encoding 468 amino acid residues, was screened and obtained from this library. A repetitive fragment of variable numbers of tandem repeat (VNTR) was found at the C-terminal sequence of A. cerana cerana MRJP2 for the first time. C-terminal repetitive sequences of MRJP2 were also cloned and sequenced for other five species of Apis. The results showed that in the other five species the sequences of the C-terminal repetitive fragment performed individual polymorphism based on core bases mutation instead of different duplications, while the lengths of the repetitive sequences were almost the same among different individuals belonging to one species. A. cerana cerana and A. mellifera, A. dorsata and A. laboriosa, and A. florea and A. andreniformis formed three evolutionary branches, respectively. The branch of A. cerana and A. mellifera showed a closer relationship with the branch of A. dorsata and A. laboriosa than that with the branch of A. florea and A. andreniformis.

Key words: Honeybee, royal jelly protein, MRJP2, VNTR, repetitive sequence, evolution