Genetic characterization of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) population of Rodrigues Island, based on microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA

Techer, Maéva Angélique; Clémencet, Johanna; Turpin, Patrick; Volbert, Nicolas; Reynaud, Bernard; Delatte, Hélène

doi:10.1007/s13592-014-0335-9

Cited by 13 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…C1_a have been previously observed in Rodrigues [44] and was also detected in 20 colonies from Mauritius. C1_a haplotype is considered as characteristic of A. m. ligustica populations and was already found in Italy [6].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 68%

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Large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of native honey bee Apis mellifera populations reveals a new African subgroup private to the South West Indian Ocean islands

et al. 2017

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BackgroundThe South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) archipelagos and Madagascar constitute a hotspot of biodiversity with a high rate of endemism. In this area, the endemic subspecies A. m. unicolor has been described in Madagascar. It belongs to the African lineage, one of the four described evolutionary lineages in honey bees. Despite a long beekeeping tradition and several recorded European introductions, few studies have been carried out on the diversity and proportion of honey bee subspecies.In order to identify and define which evolutionary lineages and potential sub-lineages are present in the SWIO, the COI-COII intergenic region and the ND2 gene of the mtDNA were sequenced in honey bee colonies from three archipelagos. An extensive sampling (n = 1184 colonies) was done in the Mascarene (La Réunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues), Seychelles (Mahé, Praslin, La Digue) and Comoros (Grande Comore, Mohéli, Anjouan, Mayotte) archipelagos. Islands genetic diversity was compared to newly sampled populations from Madagascar, continental African and European populations.ResultsAfrican lineage haplotypes were found in all islands (except for Rodrigues). Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles had 100% of A lineage, 95.5% in La Réunion and 56.1% in Mauritius. Among all African colonies detected in the SWIO, 98.1% (n = 633) of COI-COII haplotypes described the presence of the subspecies A. M. unicolor. Both genetic markers revealed i) a new private AI mitochondrial group shared by the SWIO archipelagos and Madagascar distant from continental populations; ii) the private African haplotypes for each island suggested diversity radiation in the archipelagos; iii) the detection of the Comoros archipelago as a possible contact area between insular and continental African populations.The exotic European C and M lineages were only detected in the Mascarene archipelago, but striking differences of proportion were observed among islands. Merely 4.6% of European colonies were found in La Réunion whereas Mauritius cumulated 44%. Here, among the 84 observed COI-COII haplotypes, 50 were newly described including 13 which were private to the SWIO archipelagos and Madagascar. Similarly, 24 of the 34 found ND2 haplotypes were novel which included six haplotypes particular to the SWIO populations.ConclusionA new African subgroup was described in the SWIO region with mitochondrial genetic evidence that A. m. unicolor is the indigenous subspecies of the archipelagos surrounding Madagascar.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-017-0520-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 68%

“…The most extreme case was the honey bee population from Rodrigues which was previously described as exclusively belonging to the C lineage using COI-COII [44]. This assertion is now confirmed by the ND2 marker.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of native honey bee Apis mellifera populations reveals a new African subgroup private to the South West Indian Ocean islands

et al. 2017

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“…Despite mtDNA similarities, using microsatellite markers, honey bee populations between the Seychelles Archipelago and Madagascar (separated by 1,100 km of ocean) were found to be genetically differentiated [ 38 ]. In the Mascarenes, proportions of mtDNA haplotypes from the European lineage drastically varied from an island to another [ 37 ] reaching an exclusive level in the eastern Rodrigues population [ 39 ]. These findings confirmed that multiples introductions occurred in the Mascarenes but their effect on La Réunion and Mauritius populations have never been characterized using nuclear markers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since multiples lineages coexist in these islands, processes shaping the genetic diversity are hard to disentangle without a large and diverse dataset, capable of discerning between African and European populations. For that reason, we implemented additional sampling from continental native populations and previous datasets from Madagascar [ 40 ], Seychelles [ 38 ], and Rodrigues [ 39 ], to assess the relationship among insular and continental populations. Using the most comprehensive genetic dataset of A .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity and differentiation among insular honey bee populations in the southwest Indian Ocean likely reflect old geographical isolation and modern introductions

et al. 2017

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With globalization the Western honey bee has become a nearly cosmopolitan species, but it was originally restricted to the Old World. This renowned model of biodiversity has diverged into five evolutionary lineages and several geographic “subspecies.” If Apis mellifera unicolor is indubitably an African subspecies endemic to Madagascar, its relationship with honey bees from three archipelagos in the southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) hotspot of biodiversity is misunderstood. We compared recent mtDNA diversity data to an original characterization of the nuclear diversity from honey bees in the Mascarenes and Comoros archipelagos, using 14 microsatellites, but also additional mtDNA tRNALeu-cox2 analysis. Our sampling offers the most comprehensive dataset for the SWIO populations with a total of 3,270 colonies from 10 islands compared with 855 samples from Madagascar, 113 from Africa, and 138 from Europe. Comprehensive mitochondrial screening confirmed that honey bees from La Réunion, Mauritius, and Comoros archipelagos are mainly of African origin (88.1% out of 2,746 colonies) and that coexistence with European lineages occurs only in the Mascarenes. PCA, Bayesian, and genetic differentiation analysis showed that African colonies are not significantly distinct on each island, but have diversified among islands and archipelagos. FST levels progressively decreased in significance from European and African continental populations, to SWIO insular and continental populations, and finally among islands from the same archipelago. Among African populations, Madagascar shared a nuclear background with and was most closely related to SWIO island populations (except Rodrigues). Only Mauritius Island presented clear cytoplasmic disequilibrium and genetic structure characteristic of an admixed population undergoing hybridization, in this case, between A. m. unicolor and A. m. ligustica, A. m. carnica and A. m. mellifera-like individuals. Finally, global genetic clustering analysis helped to better depict the colonization and introduction pattern of honey bee populations in these archipelagos.

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“…In the present study, we present information resulting from microsatellite genotyping to evaluate the detailed genetic diversity and population structure of two subspecies (A.m. scutellata and A.m. capensis) and their hybrids from 29 regions in the RSA. Microsatellite loci have been widely used to characterize the structure of honey bee populations across different geographical regions since they have a high degree of sensitivity and provide a reasonable level of polymorphism (Franck et al, 2001;Loucif-Ayad et al, 2015;Techer et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity and population structure of two subspecies of western honey bees (Apis melliferaL.) in the Republic of South Africa as revealed by microsatellite genotyping

Eimanifar¹,

Pieplow

Asem

2020

PeerJ

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Apis mellifera scutellata and Apis mellifera capensis, two native subspecies of western honey bees in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), are important to beekeepers in their native region because beekeepers use these bees for honey production and pollination purposes. Additionally, both bees are important invasive pests outside of their native ranges. Recently, whole mitogenome sequencing and single nucleotide polymorphisms were used to study their genetic diversity. To add to our knowledge of the molecular ecology of both bees, we tested the ability of microsatellites to be used as a tool to discriminate between A.m. capensis and A.m. scutellata. We analyzed the genetic variability and overall population structure of both bee subspecies and hybrids of the two by genotyping individuals collected from RSA (N = 813 bees from 75 apiaries) at 19 microsatellite DNA loci. Overall, populations averaged between 9.2 and 11.3 alleles per locus, with unbiased heterozygosity values ranging from 0.81 to 0.86 per population. Bayesian clustering analyses revealed two distinct evolutionary units, though the results did not match those of earlier morphometric and molecular analyses. This suggests that the microsatellites we tested were not sufficient for subspecies identification purposes, especially for Cape and hybrid bees. Nevertheless, the microsatellite data highlight the considerable genetic diversity within both populations and a larger-than-expected hybridization zone between the natural distributions of A.m. capensis and A.m. scutellata.

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Genetic characterization of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) population of Rodrigues Island, based on microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA

Cited by 13 publications

References 46 publications

Large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of native honey bee Apis mellifera populations reveals a new African subgroup private to the South West Indian Ocean islands

Large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of native honey bee Apis mellifera populations reveals a new African subgroup private to the South West Indian Ocean islands

Genetic diversity and differentiation among insular honey bee populations in the southwest Indian Ocean likely reflect old geographical isolation and modern introductions

Genetic diversity and population structure of two subspecies of western honey bees (Apis melliferaL.) in the Republic of South Africa as revealed by microsatellite genotyping

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