engleski

Biodiversity of the Carniolan honeybee in Croatia

The Carniolan honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica), the only honeybee subspecies in Croatia, is faced with the negative impacts on its biodiversity, alongside other bee populations. Contrary to the world trend, which shows steady growth of bee colonies, the numbers in Europe have been on the decline for the last 40 years. The primary cause could be various diseases (Varroa destructor, viruses, Nosema ceranae, etc.), monotonous nutrition (monoculture) or significant use of pesticides in plant production. Although numerous studies have been carried out, the actual cause of this decline is not completely clear. In Croatia, detailed analyses of the Carniolan honeybee biodiversity have not been conducted so far. Moreover, the phenotypic variation according to geographic distribution is also poorly investigated. According to the present studies, there are three ecotypes of Carniolan honeybee in Croatia: Panonian, Subalpine and Mediterranean (Dalmatian). In order to investigate the genetic structure and morphological characteristics of the Carniolan honeybee population in the frame of BioBeeCro Project, our aim is to collect and analyse bees from 300 apiaries from the entire Croatian territory. To encompass all local ecotypes, bee samples will be collected from the beekeepeers who keep bees on the stationary apiaries and do not buy queens on the market. The research will include modern genomic methodologies with sufficient coverage of single nucleotide polymorphisms (200 loci) along the genome. The parameters of the genetic structure i.e. the allele frequencies, the degree of heterozygosity and the fixation index will be determined. The analysis of ecotypes will include discriminant analyses. In order to determine the phenotypic and genetic correlations, morphometric measurements of the wings will be performed. The results will therefore provide the deeper insight into the genetic and morphologic variability together with the presence and the distribution of ecotypes. Moreover, the results will create the basis for the improvement of breeding program for honeybees in Croatia. The BioBeeCro project is funded by the Paying Agency for Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development (PAAFRD) in Croatia.

Apis mellifera carnica ; biodiversity ; BioBeeCro

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