Insights into the Maternal Ancestry of Côte d'Ivoire Honeybees Using the Intergenic Region COI-COII.

Krouholé Coulibaly,Muhammad Majeed,Chun-Sen Ma,Wei Shi,Chao Chen,Kolo Yeo

doi:10.3390/insects10040090

Abstract

Honeybee populations in Côte d’Ivoire have been previously identified as belonging to one subspecies, Apis mellifera scutellata, but other studies have since reported a mixed population consisting of A. m. adansonii and A. m. jemenitica. The population structure and the geographic distribution of honeybees in Côte d’Ivoire remain unclear. This study aimed to profile the population structure of honeybees and their biogeography in Côte d’Ivoire. A total of 33 honeybee colonies were sampled from 15 localities to investigate the maternal ancestry of indigenous honeybee populations using the DraI COI-COII mtDNA test. The results revealed that the honeybee population in Côte d’Ivoire is composed of African haplotypes, all belonging to the AI sublineage. Haplotypes A1 and A4 were recorded with five new sequence variants, including three types of haplotype A1 and two types of haplotype A4. The A1e variant was the most frequent in the A. m. adansonii distributional area. The distribution of the haplotype variants was correlated with the climate pattern in Côte d’Ivoire. This is the first study in Côte d’Ivoire that gives insights into the biogeography and mitotype structure of the local honeybee populations.

Highlights

Based on morphometrics and multivariate analyses [1], the honeybee species Apis mellifera L.has been split into four lineages
To gain further insights into the genetic diversity of indigenous honeybee populations, more studies are needed to improve the availability of reference data in different African regions
We provide for the first time the matriline structure and biogeographic distribution of the honeybee populations in Côte d’Ivoire using the highly polymorphic intergenic COI-COII region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Summary

Introduction

Based on morphometrics and multivariate analyses [1], the honeybee species Apis mellifera L.has been split into four lineages. The DraI mitochondrial DNA test was used in the identification of maternal honeybee populations [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] Using this method, four mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages have been identified, including lineages A, M, C, and Y [2,7,10]. To gain further insights into the genetic diversity of indigenous honeybee populations, more studies are needed to improve the availability of reference data in different African regions. This information could contribute towards monitoring the endemic populations, improving honeybee services, and designing strategies for ecological conservation of the local population. Several studies have been done to discriminate the honeybee population in Insects 2019, 10, 90; doi:10.3390/insects10040090 www.mdpi.com/journal/insects

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