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Haplotype Diversity in mtDNA of Honeybee in the Czech Republic Confirms Complete Replacement of Autochthonous Population with the C Lineage
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Department of Animal Morphology, Physiology and Genetics, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
2
Department of Zoology, Fishery, Hydrobiology and Apidology, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2024, 15(7), 495; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15070495
Submission received: 27 May 2024
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Revised: 28 June 2024
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Accepted: 29 June 2024
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Published: 2 July 2024
(This article belongs to the Section Insect Molecular Biology and Genomics)
Simple Summary
This research analyzed for the first time the diversity in the Czech population of the Western Honey Bee. It used two mitochondrial DNA markers to identify haplotypes. Sequencing revealed both common and novel haplotypes. The cox1 sequences showed more diversity than the tRNAleu-cox2 sequences. Most haplotypes belong to the C lineage. Some haplotypes showed links to the bees of African origin. No indigenous M lineage haplotype was found. Thus, the native population of the Dark Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, has been completely replaced by the C lineage. The haplotype networks and phylogenetic trees showed that some A and C lineage haplotypes were distinct. The haplotype diversity data indicate that there is ongoing population expansion and introgression. The Czech honeybee population is diverse, with different haplotypes in both tRNAleu-cox2 and cox1 sequences.
Abstract
The study aimed to analyze the genetic diversity in the Czech population of Apis mellifera using mitochondrial DNA markers, tRNAleu-cox2 intergenic region and cox1 gene. A total of 308 samples of bees were collected from the entire Czech Republic (from colonies and flowers in 13 different regions). Following sequencing, several polymorphisms and haplotypes were identified. Analysis of tRNAleu-cox2 sequences revealed three DraI haplotypes (C, A1, and A4). The tRNAleu-cox2 region yielded 10 C lineage haplotypes, one of which is a newly described variant. Three A lineage haplotypes were identified, two of which were novel. A similar analysis of cox1 sequences yielded 16 distinct haplotypes (7 new) within the population. The most prevalent tRNAleu-cox2 haplotype identified was C1a, followed by C2a, C2c, C2l, and C2d. For the cox1 locus, the most frequent haplotypes were HpB02, HpB01, HpB03, and HpB04. The haplotype and nucleotide diversity indices were high in both loci, in tRNAleu-cox2 with values of 0.682 and 0.00172, respectively, and in cox1 0.789 and 0.00203, respectively. The Tajima’s D values were negative and lower in tRNAleu-cox2 than in cox1. The most frequent haplotypes were uniformly distributed across all regions of the Czech Republic. No haplotype of the indigenous M lineage was identified. High diversity and the occurrence of rare haplotypes indicate population expansion and continuous import of tribal material of the C lineage.
Keywords:
Apis mellifera; mitochondrial DNA; tRNAleu-cox2; cox1; introgression; population; A lineage
