Population Structure and Genetic Diversity of Chinese Honeybee (Apis Cerana Cerana) in Central China

Abstract

Central China has a rich terrain with a temperate monsoon climate and varied natural environments for the Chinese honeybee (Apis cerana cerana). However, little comprehensive research on population genetic diversity has been done in this area. A population survey of the structure and genetic diversity of Apis cerana cerana in this area is deeply needed for understanding adaptation to variable environments and providing more references for the protection of honeybee biodiversity. In this study, we present a dataset of 72 populations of Chinese honeybees collected from nine sites by whole genome sequencing in Central China. We obtained 2,790,214,878 clean reads with an average covering a depth of 22×. A total of 27,361,052 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained by mapping to the reference genome with an average mapping rate of 93.03%. Genetic evolution analysis was presented via the population structure and genetic diversity based on the datasets of SNPs. It showed that Apis cerana cerana in plains exhibited higher genetic diversity than in mountain areas. The mantel test between Apis cerana cerana groups revealed that some physical obstacles, especially the overurbanization of the plains, contributed to the differentiation. This study is conducive to elucidating the evolution of Apis cerana in different environments and provides a theoretical basis for investigating and protecting the Chinese honeybee.

Whole-genome resequencing reveals genetic diversity and adaptive evolution in Chinese honeybee (Apis cerana cerana) in Guizhou, China

“…Our data showed that the average paired F ST value of the 12 populations was 0.0182 (Table 2). The level of genetic differentiation was lower than estimates in the Tibetan Plateau region (mean F ST = 0.0758) (Tang et al, 2022) and North China (mean F ST = 0.132) (Yancan et al, 2019) and was similar to estimates in Central China (mean F ST = 0.02470) (Fang et al, 2022) and Yunnan (mean F ST = 0.027) (Montero-Mendieta et al, 2019). The mean F ST value between the eastern and western populations was 0.0218, which was higher than the overall mean (0.0182), indicating that there was a certain degree of genetic differentiation between the two geographic regions (Table 2; Figure 3).…”

“…Populations in different environments face different selection pressures. Elevation is an important environmental parameter; populations at higher elevations must adapt to various factors, such as higher radiation, lower temperatures, precipitation, and differences in plant phenological periods than those at lower elevations (Montero-Mendieta et al, 2019;Fang et al, 2022;Chen and Luo, 2023). The Guizhou region shows a gradual elevation from east to west and does not have features associated with geographic isolation, such as obvious islands and steep mountain ranges (Zhou et al, 2023).…”

“…Under the complex ecological conditions in China, Chinese honeybees are well adapted to flowering plants and climatic variation in different regions, thus playing an irreplaceable and extremely important ecological role relative to that of exotic bees (Zhou et al, 2021;Chen and Luo, 2023). Research has shown that even Chinese honeybee populations in limited geographic areas may have great genetic differences, resulting in high diversity and providing a material foundation for the development and utilization of Chinese honeybee genetic resources (Yin and Ji, 2013;Liu et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2019;Cao et al, 2021;Fang et al, 2022). Changes in the climate and environment, industrialization, pesticide implementation, and other factors have affected honeybee resources.…”

Genetic Diversity of Urban Apis cerna Bee Populations: Insights from Phylogeography and Microsatellite Analysis

“…The results of pairwise heterozygosity values led us to conclude that genetic differentiation between populations is low. Earlier studies on A. cerana have also reported low genetic differentiation between different regional populations (Xu et al, 2013;Fang et al, 2022).…”

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Hemiculter leucisculus (Basilesky, 1855) in Xinjiang Tarim River

“…Combined with H o < H e , there was a certain degree of inbreeding. The F ST value has three levels of different genetic differentiation: moderate differentiation was 0.05 to 0.15, larger differentiation was 0.15 to 0.25 and high differentiation was greater than 0.25 [ 27 ]. In fact, RAD-seq has the drawbacks that missing data tends to inflate estimates of F ST [ 17 ].…”