Genetic Characterization of Melipona subnitida Stingless Bee in Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

The study of M. subnitida, stingless bee well adapted to extreme environmental conditions, is noteworthy once the Northeastern Brazil faces climate changing predictions in which the precipitation rates are expected to decrease, and the average of temperatures to increase. The well-studied populations are limited to the Caatinga biome, where the species was considered endemic. However, the occurrence of this species has been reported in contrasting environments from arid region, such as mangrove and sandbanks in Maranhão state. Our primary goal was to characterize samples from these different environments and compare them with previously studied populations. We identified a unique mitochondrial haplotype per region. The haplotype found in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park was exclusive from this location and differed regarding the amino acid sequence when compared to the literature presented haplotypes from Caatinga, which might be related with different evolutionary processes in the distinct environments, though further studies are needed to confirm. Melipona subnitida is highly adapted to extreme environmental conditions and can survive under long drought periods, since during water and resource scarcity, the bees reduce the colony size to a minimum number of brood and workers. Thus, the species maintains only essential tasks for the nest, being an important mechanism to save the resources stored during the bloom of rainy periods (Maia-Silva et al., 2014; 2015). Assuming the climate change predictions for Northeastern Brazil (Marengo et al., 2011) in the semi-arid region, where average reductions in precipitation rates of up to 40–50% are expected (PBMC, 2013), the study bees resistant to these conditions, such as M. subnitida, is noteworthy. Considering the importance of this species regarding resistance to extreme climatic conditions, distributional modeling

Evidence for morphological and genetic structuring of Plebeia flavocincta (Apidae: Meliponini) populations in Northeast Brazil

“…The presence of unique mitochondrial haplotypes may be associated with the process of colonization of new areas by one or a few colonies of stingless bees (Miranda et al, 2016). This pattern of unique haplotypes has already been observed in M. subnitida (Bonatti et al, 2014;Barbosa et al, 2019). Moreover, a study using thousands of genetic markers of M. subnitida showed two very distinct populations at the extremes of its distribution area and two populations with greater variability in the central region, suggesting that the species colonized the peripheral regions more recently, while the populations from the central region had more time to develop greater genetic variability (Jaffé et al, 2019).…”

Temporal Memory in Foraging of the Stingless Bee Melipona subnitida (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

“…subnitida (popularly known as Jandaíra), is a typical bee of the Brazilian Tropical Dry-Forest (Zanela, 2000), and is highly adapted to the high annual temperatures and the short and irregular rainy season characteristic of this semiarid region (Maia-Silva et al, 2015). However, it can also be found on the coast of Maranhão in the Restinga Biome, an environment in which it has been extensively investigated for food resources, foraging behaviors, and population genetics (Pinto et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2014;Barbosa et al, 2019;Pinto et al, 2020;Diniz et al, 2021).…”