Muñoz Gabaldón, IreneDe la Rúa, Pilar2025-11-182025-11-182020-11-02Muñoz, 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/s13592-020-00810-00044-843510.1007/s13592-020-00810-0https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126191FUNDING This 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). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We 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.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.engjournal article1297-9678https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00810-0restricted access575.1595.79Apis melliferaCentral and southeast EuropeConservationEcotypesGenetic diversityBiologíaGenéticaEvoluciónZoologíaInsectos2409 Genética2409.03 Genética de Poblaciones2401 Biología Animal (Zoología)2401.08 Genética Animal2415 Biología Molecular