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Insects
Special Issues
Diversity of Honey Bee: Morphology and Genetics
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Diversity of Honey Bee: Morphology and Genetics

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2021) | Viewed by 8127

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Adam Tofilski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Zoology and Animal Welfare, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 31-425 Kraków, Poland
Interests: honey bee; subspecies; wing; geometric morphometrics; biodiversity conservation
Dr. Andrzej Oleksa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-090 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Interests: genetic diversity; introgression; gene flow; biodiversity conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are important pollinators of both wild and cultivated plants. Their native range includes Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. From there, honey bees were transported by humans all over the world. Within this wide geographic range, there is substantial variability related to both adaptations and evolutionary history. Part of this diversity is threatened by beekeeping activities, including the importation of foreign genotypes and their massive proliferation, which in turn results in introgressive hybridization and homogenization of bees on a global scale. For this Special Issue, we welcome original research as well as review articles related to description, analysis and conservation of the honey bee diversity. The relevant studies can be based on various methodologies, including morphology and genetics.

Prof. Dr. Adam Tofilski
Dr. Andrzej Oleksa
Guest Editors

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. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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

  • honey bee
  • diversity
  • subspecies
  • ecotypes
  • morphometry
  • population genetics
  • conservation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5051 KiB  
Article
MtDNA Analysis Indicates Human-Induced Temporal Changes of Serbian Honey Bees Diversity
by Marija Tanasković, Pavle Erić, Aleksandra Patenković, Katarina Erić, Milica Mihajlović, Vanja Tanasić, Ljubiša Stanisavljević and Slobodan Davidović
Insects 2021, 12(9), 767; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12090767 - 27 Aug 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3580
Abstract
Local populations of Apis mellifera are rapidly changing by modern beekeeping through the introduction of nonnative queens, selection and migratory beekeeping. To assess the genetic diversity of contemporary managed honey bees in Serbia, we sequenced mitochondrial tRNAleu-cox2 intergenic region of 241 [...] Read more.
Local populations of Apis mellifera are rapidly changing by modern beekeeping through the introduction of nonnative queens, selection and migratory beekeeping. To assess the genetic diversity of contemporary managed honey bees in Serbia, we sequenced mitochondrial tRNAleu-cox2 intergenic region of 241 worker bees from 46 apiaries at eight localities. Nine haplotypes were observed in our samples, with C2d being the most common and widespread. To evaluate genetic diversity patterns, we compared our data with 1696 sequences from the NCBI GenBank from neighbouring countries and Serbia. All 32 detected haplotypes belonged to the Southeast Europe lineage C, with two newly described haplotypes from our sample. The most frequent haplotype was C2d, followed by C2c and C1a. To distinguish A. m. carnica from A. m. macedonica, both previously reported in Serbia, PCR-RFLP analysis on the COI gene segment of mtDNA was used, and the result showed only the presence of A.m. carnica subspecies. An MDS plot constructed on pairwise FST values showed significant geographical stratification. Our samples are grouped together, but distant from the Serbian dataset from the GenBank. This, with the absence of A. m. macedonica subspecies from its historic range of distribution in southern Serbia, indicates that honey bee populations are changing rapidly due to the anthropogenic influence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Honey Bee: Morphology and Genetics)
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14 pages, 2951 KiB  
Article
Historical Changes in Honey Bee Wing Venation in Romania
by Adam Tofilski, Eliza Căuia, Adrian Siceanu, Gabriela Oana Vișan and Dumitru Căuia
Insects 2021, 12(6), 542; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12060542 - 10 Jun 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3581
Abstract
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an ecologically and economically important species that provides pollination services to natural and agricultural systems. The biodiversity of the honey bee is being endangered by the mass import of non-native queens. In many locations, it [...] Read more.
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an ecologically and economically important species that provides pollination services to natural and agricultural systems. The biodiversity of the honey bee is being endangered by the mass import of non-native queens. In many locations, it is not clear how the local populations have been affected by hybridisation between native and non-native bees. There is especially little information about temporal changes in hybridisation. In Romania, A. m. carpatica naturally occurs, and earlier studies show that there are two subpopulations separated by the Carpathian Mountains. In this study, we investigated how the arrangement of veins in bees’ wings (venation) has changed in Romanian honey bees in the last four decades. We found that in the contemporary population of Romanian bees, there are still clear differences between the intra- and extra-Carpathian subpopulations, which indicates that natural variation among honey bees is still being preserved. We also found significant differences between bees collected before and after 2000. The observed temporal changes in wing venation are most likely caused by hybridisation between native bees and non-native bees sporadically introduced by beekeepers. In order to facilitate conservation and the monitoring of native Romanian bees, we developed a method facilitating their identification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Honey Bee: Morphology and Genetics)
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