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The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of the Cavity-Nesting Honeybee, Apis cerana abansis (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae)

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Abstract

Apis cerana abansis is a unique ecological type of the Asian bees, Apis cerana, distributed mainly over China’s western Sichuan plateau. We used Illumina sequencing to obtain the complete mitochondrial genome of A. c. abansis and determined the phylogenetic relationships between A. c. abansis and other Apis cerana ecotypes. The mitogenome of A. c. abansis contains 15 694 bps and includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and 1 A+T-rich control region. All protein-coding genes are initiated by ATT or ATG codons and terminated by the typical stop codons, TAA or TAG, but the start codon of the ATP8 gene (one of the 13 protein-coding genes) is ATC. The ML phylogenetic tree based on the 13 protein-coding genes showed that A. c. abansis formed a sister group with the Yun-Gui Plateau Chinese bee and the Central China Chinese bee. This study provides a scientific basis for the protection and breeding of A. c. abansis.

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Funding

This work was sponsored by grants from Sichuan Crops and Animals Breeding Special Project in the 14th Five-Year Plan (no. 2021YFYZ0004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-omics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, 611130, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Liqun Xu & Jiandong Yang

  2. Sichuan Province Apiculture Management Station, Sichuan, China

    Kang Lai

Authors
  1. Liqun Xu
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  2. Jiandong Yang
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  3. Kang Lai
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Correspondence to Jiandong Yang.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. No approval of research ethics committees was required to accomplish the goals of this study because experimental work was conducted with an unregulated invertebrate species.

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Xu, L., Yang, J. & Lai, K. The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of the Cavity-Nesting Honeybee, Apis cerana abansis (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae). Cytol. Genet. 58, 136–141 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0095452724020117

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