Abstract
The species Melipona rufiventris Lepeletier, 1836 is a Brazilian native stingless bee that is part of a species complex known as the ‘rufiventris group’, making it difficult to distinguish between the different species. Populations in this group are facing a severe decline, leading to the risk of local extinction, and therefore, their conservation should be treated as a major concern. This study describes the first set of tri- and tetranucleotide microsatellite markers, using next-generation sequencing technology for use in the identification of genetic diversity and population structure in the ‘rufiventris group’. A total of 16 microsatellite loci displayed polymorphism. Analysis of the whole data set (n = 50) detected 63 alleles in all loci, ranging from 2 to 7 with a mean of 3.9 alleles/locus. A genetic diversity analysis revealed high values for population differentiation estimates (FST = 0.252, RST = 0.317, and DEST = 0.284) between the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Caatinga biomes. An additional evidence for genetic divergence among populations was also found in the ’rufiventris group’; these should be treated as separate conservation units or even as separate species. These microsatellite markers have demonstrated a strong potential for assessing population discrimination in this threatened stingless bee group.
Highlights
Bees are considered the main pollinators in natural and agricultural environments
It is a polytypic species that is part of a group known as the ‘rufiventris group’ because of their similar morphology, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the different species [3,4,5]
Microsatellite markers, or simple sequence repeats (SSR), have emerged as one of the most popular and effective tools for determining the genetic divergence among populations and the estimation of population structure and genetic diversity in different taxa [12,13,14], which is essential for the development of efficient conservation strategies
Summary
Bees are considered the main pollinators in natural and agricultural environments. This ecosystem service is essential to sustaining species diversity and production of crops. Most of the literature suggests that M. rufiventris is a complex of two or three species with a distinct distribution [2,6,7] This native stingless bee group has a limited flight capacity compared to Apis mellifera [8,9], and when associated with geographic boundaries, it can entail low dispersal rates among populations. Microsatellite markers, or simple sequence repeats (SSR), have emerged as one of the most popular and effective tools for determining the genetic divergence among populations and the estimation of population structure and genetic diversity in different taxa [12,13,14], which is essential for the development of efficient conservation strategies. It is expected that species-specific tri- and tetranucleotide markers will provide a better dataset than previously identified markers [10] in improving our understanding of the population structure and diversity of the stingless bee Melipona rufiventris.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
