Insights into the Maternal Ancestry of Côte d’Ivoire Honeybees Using the Intergenic Region <i>COI</i>-<i>COII</i>

oleh: Krouholé Abdoul Salam Coulibaly, Muhammad Zeeshan Majeed, Chao Chen, Kolo YEO, Wei Shi, Chun-Sen Ma

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-03-01

Deskripsi

Honeybee populations in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire have been previously identified as belonging to one subspecies, <i>Apis mellifera scutellata</i>, but other studies have since reported a mixed population consisting of <i>A. m. adansonii</i> and <i>A. m. jemenitica.</i> The population structure and the geographic distribution of honeybees in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire remain unclear. This study aimed to profile the population structure of honeybees and their biogeography in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire. A total of 33 honeybee colonies were sampled from 15 localities to investigate the maternal ancestry of indigenous honeybee populations using the DraI <i>COI</i>-<i>COII</i> mtDNA test. The results revealed that the honeybee population in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire is composed of African haplotypes, all belonging to the A<sub>I</sub> sublineage. Haplotypes A<sub>1</sub> and A<sub>4</sub> were recorded with five new sequence variants, including three types of haplotype A<sub>1</sub> and two types of haplotype A<sub>4</sub>. The A<sub>1e</sub> variant was the most frequent in the <i>A. m. adansonii</i> distributional area. The distribution of the haplotype variants was correlated with the climate pattern in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire. This is the first study in C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire that gives insights into the biogeography and mitotype structure of the local honeybee populations.