<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><italic>Apis cerana</italic> is an Eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia and closely related to the Western honeybee species <italic>Apis mellifera</italic> distributed across all of Africa, Europe and Western Asia, and subdivided into thirty confirmed subspecies. Currently, <italic>A. cerana</italic> is an endangered bee species in contrast to <italic>A. mellifera.</italic> We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of <italic>A. cerana</italic> from the Jeollanam-do province of South Korea and uploaded to the DDBJ/Genbank database(AP018431). MtDNA sequence is 15.925 bp long, has 84% AT-content and 16% GC-content and contains 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, one AT-rich region and four non-coding intergenic regions (<italic>NC1-4</italic>). All protein-coding genes are started by ATT and ATG codons, except the genes <italic>ATP8</italic> and <italic>ND4</italic>, which started by ATC and ATA, respectively, and are stopped by the common codons TAA and TAG. A comparative analysis of the whole mtDNA sequences of <italic>A. cerana</italic> from Korea and Taiwan, <italic>A. c. cerana</italic> from China and <italic>A. c. japonica</italic> from Japan showed that the genetic divergence of the Korean <italic>A. cerana</italic> sample from subspecies <italic>A. c. cerana</italic> (2.57%) and <italic>A. c. japonica</italic> (2.58%) matched to the level of genetic divergence of mtDNA between animal subspecies (0.8-8%). Based on the comparative analysis of complete mtDNA (~16,000 bp), two nuclear gene <italic>VG</italic> and <italic>EF1- α</italic> sequences (~8,000 bp) and morphological measurements (six parameters), we assumed that Korean <italic>A. cerana</italic>, Chinese <italic>A. c. cerana</italic> and Japanese <italic>A. c. japonica</italic> are different subspecies at an early stage of sub-speciation and could be called further as subspecies of <italic>Apis cerana koreana</italic>.</p></abstract>

Apis cerana is an Eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia and closely related to the Western honeybee species Apis mellifera distributed across all of Africa, Europe and Western Asia, and subdivided into thirty confirmed subspecies. Currently, A. cerana is an endangered bee species in contrast to A. mellifera. We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of A. cerana from the Jeollanam-do province of South Korea and uploaded to the DDBJ/Genbank database(AP018431). MtDNA sequence is 15.925 bp long, has 84% AT-content and 16% GC-content and contains 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, one AT-rich region and four non-coding intergenic regions (NC1-4). All protein-coding genes are started by ATT and ATG codons, except the genes ATP8 and ND4, which started by ATC and ATA, respectively, and are stopped by the common codons TAA and TAG. A comparative analysis of the whole mtDNA sequences of A. cerana from Korea and Taiwan, A. c. cerana from China and A. c. japonica from Japan showed that the genetic divergence of the Korean A. cerana sample from subspecies A. c. cerana (2.57%) and A. c. japonica (2.58%) matched to the level of genetic divergence of mtDNA between animal subspecies (0.8-8%). Based on the comparative analysis of complete mtDNA (~16,000 bp), two nuclear gene VG and EF1- α sequences (~8,000 bp) and morphological measurements (six parameters), we assumed that Korean A. cerana, Chinese A. c. cerana and Japanese A. c. japonica are different subspecies at an early stage of sub-speciation and could be called further as subspecies of Apis cerana koreana.

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee <italic>Apis Cerana</italic> from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Federal Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences

Department of Life Sciences and Convergence Research Center for Insect Vectors

Journal of Apicultural Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee  from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Apis cerana is an Eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia and closely related to the Western honeybee species Apis mellifera distributed across...

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee Apis Cerana from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Published Online: Dec 24, 2018

Page range: 189 - 214

Received: Feb 08, 2018

Accepted: Sep 11, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2018-0018

Keywords
mitochondrial genome, mtDNA

© 2018 Rustem A. Ilyasov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee Apis Cerana from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Published Online: Dec 24, 2018

Page range: 189 - 214

Received: Feb 08, 2018

Accepted: Sep 11, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2018-0018

Keywordsmitochondrial genome, mtDNA

© 2018 Rustem A. Ilyasov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
mitochondrial genome, mtDNA