Dataset Information

Genetic Differentiation of Eastern Honey Bee (Apis cerana) Populations Across Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Valley Landforms.

ABSTRACT: Many species of high-altitude plateaus tend to be narrowly distributed along river valleys at lower elevations due to a limitation of suitable habitats. The eastern honeybee (Apis cerana) is such a species and this study explored the effects of long and narrow geographic distributions on honeybee populations. Genetic differentiation and diversity were assessed across populations of the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A total of 492 honeybee samples from eight sampling sites in four valleys were analyzed for the genetic differentiation and diversity of 31 microsatellite loci and mitochondrial tRNAleu-COII fragments. The following results were obtained: (1) Microsatellite genetic differentiation coefficients (F ST) ranged from 0.06 to 0.16, and mitochondrial F ST estimates ranged from 0.18 to 0.70 for different sampling sites in the same valley, indicating genetic differentiation. (2) Honeybees in adjacent valleys were also genetically differentiated. The F ST of microsatellites and mitochondria were 0.04-0.29 and 0.06-0.76, respectively. (3) Likely a result of small population sizes, the observed genetic diversity was low. The observed impedance of honeybee gene flow among valleys increased both genetic differentiation and population numbers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This study contributes significantly to the current understanding of the mechanism underlying population genetic differentiation and highlights the potential effects of utilizing genetic resources that are subject to the ecological conditions of the long and narrow geographic distributions of plateau-valley landforms.

SUBMITTER: Yu Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6538771 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Genetic Differentiation of Eastern Honey Bee (<i>Apis cerana</i>) Populations Across Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Valley Landforms.

Yu Yinglong Y Zhou Shujing S Zhu Xiangjie X Xu Xinjian X Wang Wenfeng W Zha Luo L Wang Ping P Wang Jianwen J Lai Kang K Wang Shunhai S Hao Lunan L Zhou Bingfeng B

Frontiers in genetics 20190522

Many species of high-altitude plateaus tend to be narrowly distributed along river valleys at lower elevations due to a limitation of suitable habitats. The eastern honeybee (<i>Apis cerana</i>) is such a species and this study explored the effects of long and narrow geographic distributions on honeybee populations. Genetic differentiation and diversity were assessed across populations of the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A total of 492 honeybee samples from eight sampling sites in four va ...[more]

PMID: 31178896

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Project description:IntroductionThe functional relevance of intra-species diversity in natural microbial communities remains largely unexplored. The guts of two closely related honey bee species, Apis cerana and A. mellifera, are colonised by a similar set of core bacterial species composed of host-specific strains, thereby providing a good model for an intra-species diversity study.ObjectivesWe aim to assess the functional relevance of intra-species diversity of A. cerana and A. mellifera gut microbiota.MethodsHoney bee workers were collected from four regions of China. Their gut microbiomes were investigated by shotgun metagenomic sequencing, and the bacterial compositions were compared at the species level. A cross-species colonisation assay was conducted, with the gut metabolomes being characterised by LC-MS/MS.ResultsComparative analysis showed that the strain composition of the core bacterial species was host-specific. These core bacterial species presented distinctive functional profiles between the hosts. However, the overall functional profiles of the A. cerana and A. mellifera gut microbiomes were similar; this was further supported by the consistency of the honey bees' gut metabolome, as the gut microbiota of different honey bee species showed rather similar metabolic profiles in the cross-species colonisation assay. Moreover, this experiment also demonstrated that the gut microbiota of A. cerana and A. mellifera could cross colonise between the two honey bee species.ConclusionOur findings revealed functional differences in most core gut bacteria between the guts of A. cerana and A. mellifera, which may be associated with their inter-species diversity. However, the functional profiles of the overall gut microbiomes between the two honey bee species converge, probably as a result of the overlapping ecological niches of the two species. Our findings provide critical insights into the evolution and functional roles of the mutualistic microbiota of honey bees and reveal that functional redundancy could stabilise the gene content diversity at the strain-level within the gut community.

Dataset Information

Genetic Differentiation of Eastern Honey Bee (Apis cerana) Populations Across Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Valley Landforms.

Publications

Genetic Differentiation of Eastern Honey Bee (<i>Apis cerana</i>) Populations Across Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Valley Landforms.

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