Mol Biol Evol:农科院石巍研究组发表西方蜜蜂种群适应性机制和进
近日，国际分子生物学和进化领域的权威期刊《molecular Biology and Evolution》杂志上在线发表中国农业科学院蜜蜂研究所蜜蜂资源与遗传育种研究室石巍研究组的一篇研究文章，文章报道了该团队在我国首次发现的西方蜜蜂新亚种 - 西域黑蜂(Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan)，及运用重测序技术，从基因组水平上揭示的西域蜜蜂对温带气候的环境适应性机制研究。蜜蜂研究所陈超、刘之光为共同第一作者、石巍研究员为文章通讯作者。
过去普遍认为西方蜜蜂的分布范围在中亚、非洲和欧洲地区，中国没有西方蜜蜂的自然种群。而该研究首次在中国新疆地区发现了原生的西方蜜蜂种群，并通过基因组学手段将该群体确立为新的亚种(Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan, 西域黑蜂)，该亚种与欧洲黑蜂(A. m. mellifera)有较近的亲缘关系。
西域黑蜂分布在我国新疆的新源地区，对寒冷的环境具有较强的适应性。该研究发现该群体历史上有限群体大小变化受到地球温度波动的强烈影响，在地球温度较低时群体大小达到峰值。进化分析进一步揭示了蜜蜂适应寒冷环境的遗传机理，鉴定出一系列与蜜蜂抗寒相关的基因，发现脂肪体和抑制细胞生长性的信号通路可能在群体对寒冷环境的适应上起到重要作用。
该研究成果结束了我国没有西方蜜蜂自然种群的历史，为西域黑蜂遗传资源的保护提供了理论基础，同时也为缓解蜜蜂越冬死亡问题提供了线索，具有重要的理论和实践意义，标志着蜜蜂研究所在蜜蜂种质资源与进化领域的研究达到了国际先进水平。
原文链接：
Genomic Analyses Reveal Demographic History and Temperate Adaptation of the Newly Discovered Honey Bee Subspecies Apis melLifera sinisxinyuan n. ssp
原文摘要：
Studying the genetic signatures of climate-driven selection can produce insights into local adaptation and the potential impacts of climate change on populations. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an interesting species to study local adaptation because it originated in tropical/subtropical climatic regions and subsequently spread into temperate regions. However, little is known about the genetic basis of its adaptation to temperate climates. Here, we resequenced the whole genomes of ten individual bees from a newly discovered population in temperate China and downloaded resequenced data from 35 individuals from other populations. We found that the new population is an undescribed subspecies in the M-lineage ofA. mellifera (Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan). Analyses of population history show that long-term global temperature has strongly influenced the demographic history of A. m. sinisxinyuan and its divergence from other subspecies. Further analyses comparing temperate and tropical populations identified several candidate genes related to fat body and the Hippo signaling pathway that are potentially involved in adaptation to temperate climates. Our results provide insights into the demographic history of the newly discovered A. m. sinisxinyuan, as well as the genetic basis of adaptation of A. mellifera to temperate climates at the genomic level. These findings will facilitate the selective breeding of A. mellifera to improve the survival of overwintering colonies.
作者：石巍
