Recent (2021) information on Honeybee Races or Breeds

Only 13 honey bee subspecies have been sequenced to date and the sequencing has been performed using different sequencing technologies, complicating the direct comparison of data sets. This has limited not only our ability to cleanly compare levels of genetic diversity but also our ability to estimate relatedness of samples in the USA to samples within the honey bee’s native range. 

Where this has been done, US honey bees are related to the C, M, and A lineages. While this supports some of the expectations of the historic record, the limited availability of genome sequence from honey bees within their native range and the limited sampling of honey bees within each lineage make it difficult to pinpoint precisely which subspecies is responsible for this relationship. 

Carpenter, M. H., & Harpur, B. A. (2021). Genetic past, present, and future of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) in the United States of America. Apidologie, 52(1), 63-79.

* Note: these are the brightest minds in the field and this is what they are saying.

PLB

thinking: it's a mind field out there.

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