Signatures of Positive Selection in the Genome of <i>Apis mellifera carnica</i>: A Subspecies of European Honeybees
Qiang Huang,
Yong-Qiang Zhu,
Bertrand Fouks,
Xu-Jiang He,
Qing-Sheng Niu,
Hua-Jun Zheng,
Zhi-Jiang Zeng
Affiliations
Qiang Huang
Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Zhimin Ave. 1101, Nanchang 330045, China
Yong-Qiang Zhu
Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai and Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai 200237, China
Bertrand Fouks
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics, Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, 48149 Münster, Germany
Xu-Jiang He
Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Zhimin Ave. 1101, Nanchang 330045, China
Qing-Sheng Niu
Apiculture Science Institute of Jinlin Province, Yuanlin Rd., Jinlin 132108, China
Hua-Jun Zheng
Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai and Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai 200237, China
Zhi-Jiang Zeng
Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Zhimin Ave. 1101, Nanchang 330045, China
The technology of long reads substantially improved the contingency of the genome assembly, particularly resolving contiguity of the repetitive regions. By integrating the interactive fragment using Hi-C, and the HiFi technique, a solid genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera carnica was assembled at the chromosomal level. A distinctive pattern of genes involved in social evolution was found by comparing it with social and solitary bees. A positive selection was identified in genes involved with cold tolerance, which likely underlies the adaptation of this European honeybee subspecies in the north hemisphere. The availability of this new high-quality genome will foster further studies and advances on genome variation during subspeciation, honeybee breeding and comparative genomics.
