RT Journal Article
T1 Wide genetic diversity in Old World honey bees threaten by introgression
A1 Muñoz Gabaldón, Irene
A1 De la Rúa, Pilar
AB The genetic diversity of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) remains undescribed in some parts of its natural distribution range, concretely in those subspecies inhabiting central and southeastern Europe: the globally distributed A. m. ligustica and A. m. carnica, and A. m. cecropia and A. m. macedonica. In this study, we add further information about their genetic variation, differentiation, and admixture using maternal and codominant (microsatellites) molecular markers. The phylogeographic analysis demonstrated the distinct distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes across the sampled geographic range. Cluster analysis detected two main groups of colonies while further discriminant analysis of the principal components supported the existence of ecotypes within A. m carnica and A. m. macedonica, and admixture of them. The extent of introgression and the presence of foreign haplotypes in some of these populations suggested that introductions of non-native subspecies represent a serious threat to the genetic integrity of native honey bee populations due to the creation of hybrid populations.
PB Springer
SN 0044-8435
YR 2020
FD 2020-11-02
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126191
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126191
LA eng
NO Muñoz, I., & De la Rúa, P. (2021). Wide genetic diversity in Old World honey bees threaten by introgression. Apidologie, 52, 200-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00810-0
NO FUNDINGThis research was funded by Fundación Séneca (grants 11961/PI/09 and 19908/GERM/2015) to P. De la Rúa. I. Muñoz was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship "Saavedra Fajardo" (20036/SF/16) and a MINECO Spanish postdoctoral grant "Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación" (JCI2018-036614-I).ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe are indebted to institutions and people who kindly provided the honey bee samples: Raffaele Dall'Olio (Italy), Jevrosima Stevanovic (Serbia), Evgeniya Ivanova (Bulgaria), Maria Bouga (Greece), Jutta Vollmann (Austria), Cristian Coroian (Romania), Eliza Cauia (Romania), and Szilvia Kusza (Hungary). The authors wish to thank O. Sánchez and A. I. Asensio for their technical support. Finally, we would like to thank the valuable comments of the referees who have undoubtedly improved this work.
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
NO Fundación Séneca (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 31 dic 2025