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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Bill Hesbach <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 30 Dec 2018 10:22:15 -0500
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>A perennial topic is whether HBs should be considered domesticated or not.


My understanding is that domestication manifests through loss of genetic diversity. In this study, they argue that honeybees have gained genetic diversity, thereby relegating them to managed wild stock rather than domestic breeds.  


>Human management and selective breeding cause profound reductions in genetic diversity of domesticated
animals (Bruford et al. 2003). Domestication results in a population bottleneck, reducing effective population
size and genome-wide levels of genetic diversity—a phenomenon known as the ‘domestication bottleneck’
(Wright et al. 2005; Zeder et al. 2006). B


>"Domestication is associated with a reduction in genetic diversity, but we have shown the opposite in honey bees. Higher genetic diversity in managed populations is probably caused by the honey bee’s promiscuous mating biology combined with human mediated dispersal. Management by beekeepers has allowed for honey bees to admix and produce ‘mongrel’ populations of greater diversity than that of their progenitors, and indeed more than other viable domesticated animals (Fig. S1, Supporting information). This finding is rather remarkable; while chickens, rabbits and silk moths have lost 50–60% of the genetic variation of their progenitors (Muira et al. 2008; Carneiro et al. 2011; Guo et al. 2011), managed honey bees have 71% more variation owing to admixture."

> Management increases genetic diversity of honey bees via admixture
BROCK A. HARPUR, et al.  

>https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05614.x  (link to an open .pdf) 


Fifteen years after the above study, the tenacity of the honeybee genome is still apparent with the proclaimed preservation of genetic diversity after varroa decimated two wild populations studied in the preprint-article posted earlier by Pete. 

> Interestingly, there was no overall loss of genetic diversity in most loci, despite the population bottleneck after the arrival of Varroa.

>Bozek, Katarzyna, et al. "Parallel genomic evolution of parasite tolerance in wild honey bee populations." bioRxiv (2018): 498436.

>https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/19/498436  


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT 

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