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Agriculture
Special Issues
Genomes, Molecular Breeding and Conservation of Bumblebee
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Genomes, Molecular Breeding and Conservation of Bumblebee

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2023) | Viewed by 7469

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Cheng Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
Interests: bumblebee; genome; adaptation; repeats; conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bumblebees are a group of pollinating insects comprising the genus Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae), which are excellent pollinators of greenhouse crops, decreasing the cost of labor and improving the yield and quality of the fruits. However, pathogen transmission, climate change, agrochemical exposure, and imported commercial species are threatening the pollination services of bumblebees. This Special Issue on “Genomes, Molecular Breeding and Conservation of Bumblebee” will highlight recent advances in our understanding of the interaction between bumblebees and their adverse environmental factors revealed by genome, transcriptome, physiology or behavior analysis. Research on the identification and rearing of local bumblebee species/subspecies for pollination services is also welcome. In this Special Issue, all types of manuscript, including Article, Brief Report, Communication and Review, are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Cheng Sun
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bumblebee
  • genome
  • transcriptome
  • pollination
  • conservation
  • climate change
  • pesticide
  • pathogen

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1244 KiB  
Article
Rearing of Native Bumblebee Species Bombus haemorrhoidalis for Greenhouse Pollination in Pakistan
by Umer Ayyaz Aslam Sheikh, Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Asif Aziz, Muhammad Imran, Junaid Rahim, T’ai Roulston, Shengnan Guo and Cheng Sun
Agriculture 2024, 14(4), 590; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14040590 - 8 Apr 2024
Viewed by 2128
Abstract
Greenhouse tomato production is a growing business worldwide, and it is strongly promoted by bumblebee pollination. Although there are over 250 bumblebee species worldwide, very few species have been reared successfully for greenhouse tomato pollination. Those successfully managed species, especially Bombus terrestris, [...] Read more.
Greenhouse tomato production is a growing business worldwide, and it is strongly promoted by bumblebee pollination. Although there are over 250 bumblebee species worldwide, very few species have been reared successfully for greenhouse tomato pollination. Those successfully managed species, especially Bombus terrestris, are shipped around the world for commercial use. However, managed bumblebees are known to escape greenhouse facilities, have established local populations, spread disease to local bumblebees, and are blamed for the declines of some indigenous bee species. An alternative to shipping exotic bumblebees around the world is to develop local species for greenhouse pollination. Such an approach has the dual benefits of creating a new industry of insect rearing while reducing threats to local bee communities. In this study, we successfully reared Bombus haemorrhoidalis, which is the most common bumblebee species in Northern Pakistan, in a laboratory and compared its effectiveness as a tomato pollinator with that of commercial B. terrestris in a greenhouse. We found that the effectiveness of B. haemorrhoidalis in tomato pollination in a greenhouse is very similar to that of B. terrestris when it comes to the fruit size, number of seeds, and fruit weight. Our study provides an example of how to rear a native bumblebee species to pollinate local crops, which is a method that could potentially substitute the importation of non-ingenious bumblebees. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genomes, Molecular Breeding and Conservation of Bumblebee)
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14 pages, 3528 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Imidacloprid and Flupyradifurone Insecticides on the Gut Microbiota of Bombus terrestris
by Qingchao Zhang, Qinglin Wang, Yifan Zhai, Hao Zheng and Xiaofei Wang
Agriculture 2022, 12(3), 389; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12030389 - 10 Mar 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4439
Abstract
Bumblebees are important pollinators for crops and wild flowering plants. Various pesticides have threatened the abundance and diversity of bumblebees. In addition to direct sublethal effects, pesticides may alter the gut microbial communities of bees. Imidacloprid and flupyradifurone insecticides both bind to the [...] Read more.
Bumblebees are important pollinators for crops and wild flowering plants. Various pesticides have threatened the abundance and diversity of bumblebees. In addition to direct sublethal effects, pesticides may alter the gut microbial communities of bees. Imidacloprid and flupyradifurone insecticides both bind to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. However, the latter was assumed to be harmless for honeybees and can even be applied to flowering crops. In this study, we assessed the impacts of these two pesticides on queenless microcolonies and the gut microbiota of Bombus terrestris. We found that 10 μg/L imidacloprid significantly impeded syrup consumption, and postponed the egg-laying period, larvae, and pupae development. It decreased the relative abundance of the bumblebee-specific symbionts, Apibacter and Lactobacillus Firm-5. On the contrary, 10 μg/L flupyradifurone did not reduce syrup consumption, block larvae and pupae development in bumblebees. Although no significant phenotypes were observed, PICRUST revealed that flupyradifurone suppressed pathways, involving carbohydrate metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, translation, and membrane transport. Our findings suggest the appropriate use of this new pesticide may be considered safe for bumblebees, but the underlying mechanism warrants further investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genomes, Molecular Breeding and Conservation of Bumblebee)
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