Mitochondrial DNA based molecular phylogeny of Indian honeybee, Apis cerana F. in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Indian honey bees, Apis cerana are considered as an important component of pollination and honey production however, it’s genetic diversity with reference to phylogeny is not being studied yet and thus, resulted only the involvement of Apis mellifera population in apiculture of Bangladesh. The climatic oscillation influenced the genetic diversity of different honeybee species through its wide range of genetic distribution. This study aims to reveal the mitochondrial DNA based genetic information of A. cerana population from Bangladesh. Sampling was executed from 7 localities of Bangladesh based on the foraging sources and analysis were based on the mitochondrial Cytochrome oxidase subunit-1 (COI) gene of 623 bp from 11 concatenated sequences (GenBank accession number: MZ558037- MZ558043).The phylogenetic tree resulted that the Apis cerana population from the southern part of country belonging to the clade of Apis cerana indica however, the central part of the country has the population structure similar to the Apis cerana japonica types. A. cerana cerana representing as the ancestral derivatives among the subspecies. This is the first report of occurring two subspecies in Bangladesh. These findings reveal the differentiation and the demographic expansion of Apis cerana population in Bangladesh with its divergent gene flow with anthropogenic effects. This genetic information will led to introduce Apis cerana species to the beekeeper’s of Bangladesh along with the existing Apis mellifera population.