A genome-wide signature of positive selection in ancient and recent invasive expansions of the honey bee Apis mellifera.

ABSTRACT: Apis mellifera originated in Africa and extended its range into Eurasia in two or more ancient expansions. In 1956, honey bees of African origin were introduced into South America, their descendents admixing with previously introduced European bees, giving rise to the highly invasive and economically devastating "Africanized" honey bee. Here we ask whether the honey bee's out-of-Africa expansions, both ancient and recent (invasive), were associated with a genome-wide signature of positive selection, detected by contrasting genetic differentiation estimates (F(ST)) between coding and noncoding SNPs. In native populations, SNPs in protein-coding regions had significantly higher F(ST) estimates than those in noncoding regions, indicating adaptive evolution in the genome driven by positive sel

SUBMITTER: Zayed A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2265178 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature