More on the difference between wild and domestic populations (quoted excerpt from new book):

While reduced genetic diversity is a clear pattern common to multiple domestic species, it is not generally applicable to all domestic animals. Indeed, recent studies of pigs (Frantz et al. 2015; Bosse et al. 2014), bees (Wallberg et al. 2014), chickens (Rubin et al. 2010) and yaks (Qiu et al. 2015) found no reduction of genetic diversity in domestic populations, suggesting that no domestication bottlenecks have taken place in these species. Pigs and chickens are thought to have been domesticated via a commensal pathway (Larson and Fuller 2014; Zeder 2011). 

Under this pathway, early stages of domestication are thought to be fully unintentional. The lack of a bottleneck in these species might reflect the specificity of this pathway. Multiple factors, however, complicate the interpretation the genetic diversity level in pigs, chickens and bees, especially their propensity to interbreed with wild stock (Eriksson et al. 2008; Frantz et al. 2015; Wallberg et al. 2014). Outbreeding with wild populations could indeed inflate genetic diversity. 

Stépanoff, Charles, and Jean-Denis Vigne, eds. Hybrid Communities: Biosocial Approaches to Domestication and Other Trans-species Relationships. Routledge, 2018.

¶

Speaking of bottlenecks, look at the what happened in Brazil. A very small number of queens were used to establish the African population which now thrives all over the Americas. Understanding the genetic makeup of those bees is crucial: they are an example of evolution in real time. Surprisingly, they have retained genetic markers from the original European honey bee stock of Brazil, which points toward survival benefits of the traits associated with those "genes."

PLB

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html