Abstract
Simple SummaryThe conservation of the genetic diversity of the native honey bee subspecies is a hot topic in many European countries. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses can provide some information that is useful to monitor the genetic integrity of Apis mellifera populations. A preliminary distribution of the main honey bee mitotypes in Italy was obtained more than 20 years ago. In this study we obtained an updated and more detailed distribution map of the main groups of honey bee mitotypes using an unconventional method that exploits the information derived from the environmental DNA contained in the honey. The results were quite different from the picture taken two decades ago. The African mtDNA lineage was spread all over Italy and not only in Sicily, where it is mainly attached to the A. m. siciliana subspecies, and where it was identified in the previous investigation. A reduction in the frequency of the M lineage was also evident, and, on the other hand, a counterbalanced increase in the C mitotypes was observed in regions all over. The obtained results provided an updated distribution map of the A, C and M groups of mitotypes in Italy, which could be a starting point to design appropriate conservation programs for native honey bee subspecies.Growing interest has been emerging on the need to monitor the genetic integrity of the European Apis mellifera subspecies that could be threatened by the human-mediated dispersion of non-native populations and lines. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages can provide useful information for this purpose. In this study, we took advantage of the environmental DNA (eDNA) contained in the honey, which can be analyzed to detect the main groups of mitotypes of the honey bees that produced it. In this study, we applied this eDNA to produce a distribution map all over the Italian peninsula and the two major islands (Sicily and Sardinia) of the following three honey bee mtDNA lineages: A, C and M. A total of 607 georeferenced honey samples, produced in all Italian regions, was analyzed to detect these lineages. The A lineage was widespread in Sicily, as expected, considering that A. m. siciliana carries the African lineage. Surprisingly, this lineage was also reported in about 14% of all other samples produced in almost all continental regions, and in Sardinia. The applied method obtained an updated distribution map of honey bee mtDNA lineages that could be useful to design policies for the conservation of Italian honey bee genetic resources.
Highlights
The genetic integrity of honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations and subspecies, which might be well adapted to local environments, is a matter of growing attention in several European countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
We recently developed a simple end-point PCR method to discriminate the main three Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages (A, C and M) of A. mellifera, using honey as a source of environmental
All of the sequenced fragments of the three mitotypes corresponded to the expected mtDNA regions, as already demonstrated [51]
Summary
The genetic integrity of honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations and subspecies, which might be well adapted to local environments, is a matter of growing attention in several European countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The erosion of the genetic diversity among honey bee populations is caused by the combined action of different factors [10]. On the one hand, beekeeping activities, including the transhumance of colonies and extensive trading of queen bees, may contribute to increasing the admixture and reducing, in turn, the genetic diversity between the populations [11,12,13]. The action of multifactorial elements (including the extensive use of harmful pesticides for the bees, the effect of adverse climate conditions, and the related increased sensitivity to parasites and pathogens), indicated as the main causes of the global decline in the bees, contributes to the erosion of the population size of. Transhumance is needed, in several cases, to counterbalance the effects of climate change on nectar availability [17,18,19,20]
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