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Admixture increases diversity in managed honey bees: Reply to De la Rúa et al . (2013)
Author(s) -
Harpur Brock A.,
Minaei Shermineh,
Kent Clement F.,
Zayed Amro
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.12332
Subject(s) - biology , genetic diversity , subspecies , honey bee , diversity (politics) , honey bees , population , worker bee , evolutionary biology , zoology , ecology , demography , anthropology , sociology
De la Rúa et al . (2013) express some concerns about the conclusions of our recent study showing that management increases genetic diversity of honey bees ( A pis mellifera ) by promoting admixture (Harpur et al . 2012). We provide a brief review of the literature on the population genetics of A . mellifera and show that we utilized appropriate sampling methods to estimate genetic diversity in the focal populations. Our finding of higher genetic diversity in two managed A . mellifera populations on two different continents is expected to be the norm given the large number of studies documenting admixture in honey bees. Our study focused on elucidating how management affects genetic diversity in honey bees, not on how to best manage bee colonies. We do not endorse the intentional admixture of honey bee populations, and we agree with De la Rúa et al . (2013) that native honey bee subspecies should be conserved.