Apis mellifera evolutionary lineages in Northern Africa: Libya, where orient meets occident

Shaibi, Taher; Muñoz, Irene; Dall’Olio, Raffaele; Lodesani, Marco; Rúa, Pilar De la; Moritz, Robin F. A.

doi:10.1007/s00040-009-0023-3

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Phylogeographic studies using molecular markers are also uncovering cryptic diversity [e.g. Apis mellifera (El Niweiri & Moritz, ; Shaibi et al ., ); Acanthodactylus spp. (Fonseca et al ., ); Ptyodactylus spp.…”

Section: Distribution Of Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling biodiversity, evolution and threats to conservation in the Sahara‐Sahel

et al. 2013

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Deserts and arid regions are generally perceived as bare and rather homogeneous areas of low diversity. The Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world and together with the arid Sahel displays high topographical and climatic heterogeneity, and has experienced recent and strong climatic oscillations that have greatly shifted biodiversity distribution and community composition. The large size, remoteness and long-term political instability of the Sahara-Sahel, have limited knowledge on its biodiversity. However, over the last decade, there have been an increasing number of published scientific studies based on modern geomatic and molecular tools, and broad sampling of taxa of these regions. This review tracks trends in knowledge about biodiversity patterns, processes and threats across the Sahara-Sahel, and anticipates needs for biodiversity research and conservation. Recent studies are changing completely the perception of regional biodiversity patterns. Instead of relatively low species diversity with distribution covering most of the region, studies now suggest a high rate of endemism and larger number of species, with much narrower and fragmented ranges, frequently limited to micro-hotspots of biodiversity. Molecular-based studies are also unravelling cryptic diversity associated with mountains, which together with recent distribution atlases, allows identifying integrative biogeographic patterns in biodiversity distribution. Mapping of multivariate environmental variation (at 1 km × 1 km resolution) of the region illustrates main biogeographical features of the Sahara-Sahel and supports recently hypothesised dispersal corridors and refugia. Micro-scale water-features present mostly in mountains have been associated with local biodiversity hotspots. However, the distribution of available data on vertebrates highlights current knowledge gaps that still apply to a large proportion of the Sahara-Sahel. Current research is providing insights into key evolutionary and ecological processes, including causes and timing of radiation and divergence for multiple taxa, and associating the onset of the Sahara with diversification processes for low-mobility vertebrates. Examples of phylogeographic patterns are showing the importance of allopatric speciation in the Sahara-Sahel, and this review presents a synthetic overview of the most commonly hypothesised diversification mechanisms. Studies are also stressing that biodiversity is threatened by increasing human activities in the region, including overhunting and natural resources prospection, and in the future by predicted global warming. A representation of areas of conflict, landmines, and natural resources extraction illustrates how human activities and regional insecurity are hampering biodiversity research and conservation. Although there are still numerous knowledge gaps for the optimised conservation of biodiversity in the region, a set of research priorities is provided to identify the framework data needed to support regional conservation planning.

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Section: Distribution Of Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling biodiversity, evolution and threats to conservation in the Sahara‐Sahel

et al. 2013

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“…These surveys have provided a largely concordant grouping of diversity into four major evolutionary lineages, whose designations are roughly coincident with their geographical ranges, namely: the African (A), the Middle Eastern (O), the eastern European (C), and the western European (M). Current distribution of these lineages is largely parapatric with contact zones identified in Italy (Franck et al 2000), Turkey (Kandemir et al 2006), Libya (Shaibi et al 2009a), and in the Iberian Peninsula (Smith et al 1991;Franck et al 1998;Arias et al 2006;Miguel et al 2007;Cánovas et al 2008). Special attention has been paid to the Iberian contact zone, which has been examined with biparental and, more extensively, with maternal markers (Smith et al 1991;Franck et al 1998;Garnery et al 1998;Arias et al 2006;Miguel et al 2007Miguel et al , 2011Cánovas et al 2008Cánovas et al , 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal diversity patterns of Ibero-Atlantic populations reveal further complexity of Iberian honeybees

et al. 2013

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International audienceDissecting complex diversity patterns typically exhibited by organisms of hybrid zones is among the greatest challenges in evolutionary biology. This has been a long-standing goal of numerous Iberian honeybee studies. Herein, we further contribute to this goal by a fine-scale maternal survey of the Portuguese honeybee populations. In addition to confirm a predicted African ancestry of Portuguese populations and negligible levels of C-lineage introgression, our fine-scale survey revealed unparalleled levels of African maternal diversity and a remarkable north–south cline formed by African haplotypes of distinct ancestry. This survey further highlights the distinctiveness of A pis mellifera iberiensis by showing the existence of highly contrasting diversity patterns between the Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. Our findings further support an ancient natural invasion of the Iberian Peninsula possibly by Apis mellifera intermissa and also by Apis mellifera sahariensis. Protecting this African legacy is of unquestionable importance, especially with Iberia becoming warmer and dryer

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“…Although, mitochondrial DNA analyses showed two mitotypes of the evolutionary lineage O (Shaibi et al 2009b), the small F st values among colonies within Kufra suggests that the population is very homogeneous indeed. The locations open to migratory beekeeping (Brak and Coast) showed significantly higher population substructuring at the colony level, suggesting that the queens' mates represent a more biased sample than those drones mating the queens in Kufra.…”

Section: Gene Diversity and Population Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Recently, Shaibi et al (2009a) suggested that remote honeybee populations in the Libyan deserts are autochtonous populations that can be readily identified as distinct morphotypes, very different from adjacent subspecies of A. mellifera. Also mitochondrial DNA analyses suggested that these bees are old relic populations from a time when honeybees where abundant all over North Africa (Shaibi et al 2009b) suggesting that the bees of the Oasis Kufra had not been introduced by man and indeed is an endemic population confined for much more than 5,000 years in an area of 88 km 2 and separated by over 1,000 km of sand desert to the next viable habitat for honeybees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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10,000 years in isolation? Honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Saharan oases

Shaibi

Moritz

2010

Conserv Genet

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After the transition from a savannah to a desert about 10,000 years ago the isolated Saharan oases offer a unique case for studying the effect of population fragmentation and isolation over a period of many thousand years. We use the honeybee, Apis mellifera, as a test system because they are an abundant wild species in the African dry savannahs but are particularly sensitive to drift and bottlenecks in small isolated populations due to the small effective size resulting from male haploidy, the sex determination system and sociality. We compared the nonfragmented coastal population with the oases of Brak and Kufra using 15 polymorphic microsatellite loci assessing the mating frequency, colony density, gene diversity, and population differentiation. We found that the honeybee population of the remote oasis of Kufra is well isolated whereas those of the oasis of Brak and the coastal regions show genetic foot prints of introgression by commercial beekeeping. The isolated Kufra population showed no indications of inbreeding suggesting that the endemic population size is sufficient to ensure sustainable local survival.

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Apis mellifera evolutionary lineages in Northern Africa: Libya, where orient meets occident

Cited by 21 publications

References 40 publications

Unravelling biodiversity, evolution and threats to conservation in the Sahara‐Sahel

Unravelling biodiversity, evolution and threats to conservation in the Sahara‐Sahel

Maternal diversity patterns of Ibero-Atlantic populations reveal further complexity of Iberian honeybees

10,000 years in isolation? Honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Saharan oases

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