Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee Apis Cerana from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Abstract

Apis cerana is an Eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia and closely related to the Western honeybee species Apis mellifera distributed across all of Africa, Europe and Western Asia, and subdivided into thirty confirmed subspecies. Currently, A. cerana is an endangered bee species in contrast to A. mellifera. We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of A. cerana from the Jeollanam-do province of South Korea and uploaded to the DDBJ/Genbank database(AP018431). MtDNA sequence is 15.925 bp long, has 84% AT-content and 16% GC-content and contains 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, one AT-rich region and four non-coding intergenic regions (NC1-4). All protein-coding genes are started by ATT and ATG codons, except the genes ATP8 and ND4, which started by ATC and ATA, respectively, and are stopped by the common codons TAA and TAG. A comparative analysis of the whole mtDNA sequences of A. cerana from Korea and Taiwan, A. c. cerana from China and A. c. japonica from Japan showed that the genetic divergence of the Korean A. cerana sample from subspecies A. c. cerana (2.57%) and A. c. japonica (2.58%) matched to the level of genetic divergence of mtDNA between animal subspecies (0.8-8%). Based on the comparative analysis of complete mtDNA (~16,000 bp), two nuclear gene VG and EF1- α sequences (~8,000 bp) and morphological measurements (six parameters), we assumed that Korean A. cerana, Chinese A. c. cerana and Japanese A. c. japonica are different subspecies at an early stage of sub-speciation and could be called further as subspecies of Apis cerana koreana.

Tackling the Taxonomic Challenges in the Family Scoliidae (Insecta, Hymenoptera) Using an Integrative Approach: A Case Study from Southern China

“…Plus, the COI sequences provide strong evidence that these are different species, with a 7.7-8.6% genetic distance between the two species. This genetic distance matches the level of genetic divergence of mtDNA between animal species (8-17%) [34]. This indicates that cryptic species may exist in Scolia and male genitalia and DNA barcoding are useful in recognizing these species.…”

Phylogenetic Relationships of Russian Far-East Apis cerana with Other North Asian Populations

“…ACNC105, ACNC106, ACNC107, ACNC108, ACNC109) subdivided into Group A and Group B (Lee et al, 2016). Ilyasov et al (2018a) found one more new haplotype ACNC110 in A. c. koreana. In the current study, we found new haplotype ACNC111 of Russian Far East A. cerana, which was very similar to A. c. koreana but differed from it by one insertion 31insT, with number of position relatively the sequence KP064870.…”

“…The NC1 region of the Russian Far East A. cerana was found to be similar to the A. cerana ACNC101 haplotype and differed from the Korean A. c. koreana samples KP064870 and KP064972 by only one insertion 31insT, relatively to the NC1 sequence of Russian Far East A. cerana. Ten A. cerana haplotypes of the NC1 region (ACNC101 -ACNC110) were published earlier (Lee et al, 2016;Ilyasov et al, 2018a). This haplotype with 31insT insertion is new and is named ACNC111 (Fig.…”

A revision of subspecies structure of western honey bee Apis mellifera

“…The subspecies A. m. jemenitica, A. m. adansonii cannot be discriminated by morphometry ( Radloff et al, 1998 ) but can be discriminated by other morphometry ( Ruttner, 1988 , Dukku, 2016 ), by mtDNA ( Franck et al, 2001 ). The subspecies A. m. carpathica , A. m. carnica , A. m. macedonica cannot be discriminated by morphometry ( Radloff et al, 1998 ) but can be discriminated by other morphometry ( Foti et al, 1965 , Engel, 1999 , Cauia et al, 2008 , Mărghitas et al, 2008 , Teleky et al, 2009 ), by mtDNA ( Mărghitas et al, 2009 , Bouga et al, 2011 , Coroian et al, 2014 , Syromyatnikov et al, 2018 ; Ilyasov et al, 2018 ). The subspecies A. m. rodopica , A. m. macedonica cannot to be discriminated by morphometry ( Engel, 1999 ), by allozyme ( Bouga et al, 2005 , Kandemir et al, 2005 , Ivanova et al, 2010 ), but can be discriminated by other morphometry ( Foti et al, 1965 , Engel, 1999 , Cauia et al, 2008 , Mărghitas et al, 2008 , Teleky et al, 2009 ), by mtDNA ( Lazarov, 1936 , Tzonev, 1960 , Velichkov, 1970 , Bouga et al, 2011 ), by microsatellites ( Nikolova, 2011 , Uzunov et al, 2014 ), by mtDNA ( Bouga et al, 2005 , Martimianakis et al, 2011 ; Meixner et al, 2013 ; Radoslavov et al, 2017 ).…”

“…The subspecies A. m. syriaca , A. m. anatoliaca, A. m. meda assigned to the O lineage by morphometry ( Ruttner, 1988 ), by mtDNA ( Arias and Sheppard, 1996 ), but assigned to the A lineage (Z sublineage) by mtDNA ( Arias and Sheppard, 1996 , Franck et al, 2000 , Bouga et al, 2005 ; Alburaki et al, 2011 , Alburaki et al, 2013 ). The subspecies A. m. caucasia assigned to the O lineage by morphometry ( Ruttner, 1988 , Adl et al, 2007 , Meixner et al, 2007 , Kandemir et al, 2011 ), but assigned to the C lineage by mtDNA ( Franck et al, 2000 ; Alburaki et al, 2011 , Alburaki et al, 2013 ), by allozyme ( Smith, 1991 ; Garnery et al, 1992 ; Kandemir and Kence, 1995 , Ivanova et al, 2011 ), by mtDNA ( Cornuet and Garnery, 1991 , Koulianos and Crozier, 1997 , Smith et al, 1997 , Garnery et al, 1998 , Palmer et al, 2000 , Franck et al, 2000 , Smith, 2002 , Özdïl et al, 2009 , Mărghitas et al, 2009 ; Ilyasov et al, 2018 ). The subspecies A. m. cypria , A. m. adami assigned to the O lineage by morphometry ( Ruttner, 1988 ) but assigned to the C lineage by mtDNA and allozyme ( Bouga et al, 2005 ).…”