Genetic structure of Korean populations of bumblebees Bombus ignitus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) as revealed by microsatellite markers |
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Authors: | Taeman Han Haechul Park In Gyun Park Hyung Joo Yoon Ki‐Hwan Kim Hyuk Je Lee |
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Affiliation: | 1. Applied Entomology Division, Department of Agricultural Biology, National Academy of Agricultural Science, , Suwon, Korea;2. Bionics, , Seoul, Korea;3. Department of Biological Science, College of Science and Engineering, Sangji University, , Wonju, Korea |
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Abstract: | Bumblebee Bombus ignitus, which is indigenous to Korea, Japan, and China, has been recognized as a valuable pollinator for both crops and wild plants. Bombus ignitus has now become commercially important as a pollinator because of its use in the agricultural industry, particularly for greenhouse pollination. For long‐term management and effective conservation of B. ignitus, an understanding of the genetic structure of its naturally occurring populations is practically important. In this study, the genetic structure among the five populations of B. ignitus in South Korea was assessed using nine microsatellite loci. These markers showed high levels of genetic variability, with the number of alleles ranging from 6 to 22 (mean = 13.4) and the frequency of the most common allele ranging from 0.11 to 0.66. Only the Sabuk (SB) population showed a genetic signature of a recent bottleneck, which was further supported by the lowest level of allelic richness (AR) (mean AR = 3.944). Genetic differentiation was highly significant among all pairs of populations (P < 0.001) across the nine microsatellite markers, suggesting a lack of gene flow among those populations. Interestingly, FST (and RST and Dest) values were always greater for the Taebaek population than for the four remaining populations. The phylogenetic analysis showed evidence supporting our hypothesis that the Taebaek population is genetically more divergent than the other populations. Overall, our results suggest that the Korean populations of B. ignitus might have undergone geographic isolation and have become highly separated spatially from one another, thereby having a limited range of migration among their local habitats. |
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Keywords: | Bombus ignitus greenhouse pollination Korea population bottleneck population genetics Taebaek Mountain |
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