Reliability of an island mating apiary under routine management

Scharpenberg, Holger; Neumann, Peter; Praagh, J.P. van; Moritz, Robin F. A.

doi:10.1080/00218839.2006.11101334

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…To gain control over the drones that are involved in the mating process, one can establish isolated mating stations (IMS, a survey of all abbreviations and variables can be found at the end of this article). There, a sister group of drone producing queens (DPQ) is located at a geographically remote area that is otherwise void of honeybee colonies [ 10 , 15 , 16 ]. Virgin queens are brought to these IMS for their nuptial flights and consequently only mate with drones that share a common grand-dam.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Potential of Instrumental Insemination for Sustainable Honeybee Breeding

Du,

Bernstein,

Hoppe

2023

Genes

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Mating control is crucial in honeybee breeding and commonly guaranteed by bringing virgin queens to isolated mating stations (IMS) for their nuptial flights. However, most breeding programs struggle to provide sufficiently many IMS. Research institutions routinely perform instrumental insemination of honeybees, but its potential to substitute IMS in breeding programs has not been sufficiently studied. We performed stochastic simulations to compare instrumental insemination strategies and mating on IMS in terms of genetic progress and inbreeding development. We focused on the role of paternal generation intervals, which can be shortened to two years with instrumental insemination in comparison to three years when using IMS. After 70 years, instrumental insemination yielded up to 42% higher genetic gain than IMS strategies—particularly with few available mating sites. Inbreeding rates with instrumental insemination and IMS were comparable. When the paternal generation interval in instrumental insemination was stretched to three years, the number of drone producers required for sustainable breeding was reduced substantially. In contrast, when shortening the interval to two years, it yielded the highest generational inbreeding rates (up to 2.28%). Overall, instrumental insemination with drones from a single colony appears as a viable strategy for honeybee breeding and a promising alternative to IMS.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Potential of Instrumental Insemination for Sustainable Honeybee Breeding

Du,

Bernstein,

Hoppe

2023

Genes

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“…It has been widely used in honeybee breeding programs and represents a primary method of controlling mating where there is no other option to effectively isolate a breeding population [3]. As honeybee queens mate in flights with drones originating from colonies up to 15 km distant [4], the use of geographically isolated mating stations usually located in small islands or confined valleys is the second and the last method for honeybee breeding [4,5]. Naturally, honeybee queens mate with numerous drones (12–14 on average) coming from various genetic sources, which is generally considered to be a means to increase colony fitness [6,7,8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Virus Infections in Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) Ejaculate Used for Instrumental Insemination

Prodělalová

Moutelíková

Titěra

2019

Viruses

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Instrumental insemination of Apis mellifera L. queens is a widely employed technique used in honeybee breeding that enables the effective control of mating. However, drone semen represents a potential source of honeybee viruses. In this study, 43 semen doses collected from apparently healthy drones, and consequently used in instrumental insemination, were analysed using PCR or RT-PCR to detect the presence of viral genome of 11 honeybee viruses. In 91% of samples, viral infection was detected. The survey revealed genomes of five viruses, namely Deformed wing virus (DWV), Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV), Sacbrood virus (SBV), and A. mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV) in 84%, 19%, 14%, 2%, and 67% of samples, respectively. Single infection (30% of samples) as well as multiple infection (61% of samples) of two, three or four pathogens were also evaluated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study describing the presence of the BQCV and SBV genome sequence in drone ejaculate. Phylogenetic analysis of BQCV partial helicase gene sequence revealed the high similarity of nucleotide sequence of described Czech strains, which varied from 91.4% to 99.6%. The findings of our study indicate the possibility of venereal transmission of BQCV and SBV.

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“…Islands or remote mountain valleys in particular offer excellent opportunities to limit the impact of non-native honey bees. Conservation measures usually include that introduced honey bees and hybrids are replaced by native bees after being identified by discrimination of wing morphology (Ruttner, 1988;Kauhausen-Keller and Keller, 1994) or genetic analyses using microsatellite markers (Neumann et al, 1999a;Scharpenberg et al, 2006;Soland-Reckeweg et al, 2009;Oleksa et al, 2011;Péntek-Zakar et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Whole-Genome Sequence Information to Foster Conservation Efforts for the European Dark Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera

et al. 2016

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Pollination is a key ecosystem service for agricultural systems and Western honey bees, Apis mellifera, are the most important managed pollinators. Major losses of managed honey bee colonies reinforced the need to take advantage of locally adapted subspecies and ecotypes to buffer populations against various stressors. However, introductions of non-native honey bees from distant lineages are likely to undermine respective conservation efforts unless reliable and cost effective tools can be used to identify hybridization. The purpose of this study is to characterize current population structure and genetic diversity, and to assess the degree of admixture between native and introduced honey bees. Moreover, we aim to select a reduced number of genetic markers to improve conservation management strategies. We take advantage of recent developments in next-generation sequencing and network-based clustering to investigate conservation efforts for the native European Dark honey bee, A. m. mellifera, which is threatened by introgression in most of its range. We collected whole-genome sequence information from haploid drones of A. m. mellifera, A. m. carnica, and Buckfast sampled throughout Switzerland (N = 81), as well as from four Swiss A. m. mellifera conservation areas (N = 39) and from one conservatory in the French Alps (N = 31). Population structure analyses based upon 3.375 M genome-wide SNPs discerned samples by subspecies and geographic origin (Switzerland or France). Ancestry inference indicated admixed individuals in all of the protected areas, calling for improved management efforts. After testing different subsets of ancestry informative SNPs using three different selection strategies (F ST , PCA-based or at random), as few as 50 SNPs are found to be sufficient to differentiate native from introduced honey bees. Therefore, our data suggests that a low-density SNP panel can be a precise and cost-effective tool to support conservation management efforts for managed pollinators.

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Reliability of an island mating apiary under routine management

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

The Potential of Instrumental Insemination for Sustainable Honeybee Breeding

The Potential of Instrumental Insemination for Sustainable Honeybee Breeding

Multiple Virus Infections in Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) Ejaculate Used for Instrumental Insemination

Using Whole-Genome Sequence Information to Foster Conservation Efforts for the European Dark Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera

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