It would have been nice if the gene boys would have given more information about the bees they sampled and paid more attention to the genetic variation within the species. 

 

What mellifera and cerana did they work with? The genetic variation of temperate mellifera where a "small" population followed the retreating ice might be a lot smaller than that of a big mixed tropical mellifera population with a different pathogen pressures? How about temperate cerana vs. tropical cerana? If the genetic variation in temperate cerana is similar to the one in tropical cerana there is a lot to say for mites (and their piercing/bacteria/virusses) being the driving force of variation I think. 

Is the lack of variation in temperate mellifera (assuming there is one compared to the tropical) due to a migration-up-north founder effect or did man select it out? It would be nice if they had a sample of temperate mellifera from "non domesticated" population or tropical mellifera from a weird island or so.   

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