Department of Genetics of Populations and Ecogenotoxicology, Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković"-National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11060, Belgrade, Serbia.
Center for Forensic and Applied Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 21;12(1):17692. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-21413-y.
Urbanization can change biodiversity in both directions, positive and negative, and despite the rising global trend of urban beekeeping, little is known about the impact of urbanization on the genetic diversity of honey bees. We investigate how urbanization affects the genetic variability of feral and managed honey bee colonies that are spread throughout the entire city, even in highly urban areas, through genetic analysis of 82 worker bees. We found convincing evidence of high genetic differentiation between these two groups. Additionally, by comparing city samples with 241 samples from 46 apiaries in rural parts of the country, variations in mitochondrial tRNAleu-cox2 intergenic region and microsatellite loci indicated that feral colonies have distinct patterns of genetic diversity. These results, with evidence that feral honey bees find niches within highly modified and human-dominated urban landscapes, lead us to conclude that urbanization is a driver of the genetic diversity of feral honey bees in the city.
城市化可以从正反两方面改变生物多样性，尽管全球范围内城市养蜂的趋势不断上升，但对于城市化对蜜蜂遗传多样性的影响却知之甚少。我们通过对 82 只工蜂进行基因分析，研究了城市化如何影响分布在整个城市（甚至在高度城市化地区）的野生和养殖蜜蜂群体的遗传变异性。我们发现了这两个群体之间存在高度遗传分化的令人信服的证据。此外，通过将城市样本与来自该国农村地区 46 个养蜂场的 241 个样本进行比较，线粒体 tRNAleu-cox2 基因间隔区和微卫星位点的变化表明，野生群体具有独特的遗传多样性模式。这些结果表明，野生蜜蜂在高度改造和以人类为主导的城市景观中找到了自己的生存空间，因此我们得出结论，城市化是城市中野生蜜蜂遗传多样性的驱动因素。
