Contrasting whole-genome diversity patterns and adaptation in honeybees from two southern European glacial refugia.

ABSTRACT: Human-driven environmental change makes understanding genetic variation essential for protecting keystone species such as the honeybee, Apis mellifera. We compared whole-genome mitonuclear variation in subspecies inhabiting the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, which have been shaped by distinct glacial histories and modern beekeeping pressures. Italian honeybees showed a stronger anthropogenic imprint, driven largely by recent human-mediated gene flow. Both subspecies showed mitonuclear asymmetry, an approximate south-to-northeast clinal pattern, evidence of ancient or recent admixture with other subspecies and lineages, and genomic signatures of a 20th-century bottleneck. African ancestry was present in both, though ancient and predominantly mitochondrial in Iberia, but recent and p

SUBMITTER: Yadro Garcia CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12818284 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature