Cistus ladanifer as a source of phenolic compounds with antifungal activity

A screening of the antifungal potential of phenolic extract of Cistus ladanifer from Northeast Portugal, against Candida species was performed. The extract was characterized by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS. Phenolic acids and derivatives, ellagic acid derivatives and flavonoids, such as catechins, flavonols and flavones, were found in the sample, The most abudant group was ellagic acid derivatives in which punicalagin gallate, a derivative of punicalagin attached to gallic acid, was found in highest amount. These compounds could be related to the strong inhibition of C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. parapsilosis growth. Moreover, the best antifungal activity was against C. glabrata, where the studied extract was able to cause at least 3 Log of reduction at concentrations below 50μg/mL and a total growth inhibition at concentrations above 625 μg/mL

Başkortostan Cumhuriyeti Toratau Jeoparki bal arısı (apis mellifera) popülasyonunda tergit rengi değişimi

A phenetic analysis of the honey bee population of the Toratau Geopark (Russia) was performed. Over 1,000 worker and drone bee samples were collected from 250 colonies in 59 apiaries on the territory of the Toratau Geopark (Gafuriysky, Ishimbaysky, Meleuzovsky, and Sterlitamaksky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan). Six phenes in worker bees and four phenes in drone bees were recognized. The phenes E, 1R, 2R, and 3R in workers and Is, I, and O-gray in drones were predominant in the honey bee population of the Toratau Geopark, which were associated with subspecies of the Clineage. These phenes can be used as indicators of introgressive hybridization in the local dark European honey bee population. The phenes allow for quick evaluation of certain honey bee colonies hybridization states.Toratau Jeoparkı'ndaki (Rusya) bal arısı popülasyonunun fenetik analizi yapılmıştır. Toratau Jeoparkı topraklarındaki (Başkurdistan Cumhuriyeti'nin Gafuriysky, Ishimbaysky, Meleuzovsky ve Sterlitamaksky bölgeleri) 59 arılıktaki 250 koloniden 1.000'den fazla işçi ve erkek arı örneği toplanmıştır. İşçi arılarda altı fen ve erkek arılarda dört tergit rengi tespit edilmiştir. İşçilerde E, 1R, 2R ve 3R ve erkek arılarda Is, I ve O-gri fenleri Toratau Jeoparkı'ndaki bal arısı popülasyonunda baskındı ve bunlar C soyunun alt türleriyle ilişkiliydi. Bu tergit rengi, yerel koyu Avrupa bal arısı popülasyonunda içsel melezleşmenin göstergeleri olarak kullanılabilir. Bu tergit renkleri, belirli bal arısı kolonilerinin melezleşme durumlarının hızlı bir şekilde değerlendirilmesine olanak sağlamaktadır.The article was prepared with supporting the grant of the head of the Republic of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov, grant title "Study of the Bashkir bee population on the territory of the Toratau Geopark

Authoritative subspecies diagnosis tool for European honey bees based on ancestryinformative SNPs

Background With numerous endemic subspecies representing four of its five evolutionary lineages, Europe holds a large fraction of Apis mellifera genetic diversity. This diversity and the natural distribution range have been altered by anthropogenic factors. The conservation of this natural heritage relies on the availability of accurate tools for subspecies diagnosis. Based on pool-sequence data from 2145 worker bees representing 22 populations sampled across Europe, we employed two highly discriminative approaches (PCA and F-ST) to select the most informative SNPs for ancestry inference. Results Using a supervised machine learning (ML) approach and a set of 3896 genotyped individuals, we could show that the 4094 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) provide an accurate prediction of ancestry inference in European honey bees. The best ML model was Linear Support Vector Classifier (Linear SVC) which correctly assigned most individuals to one of the 14 subspecies or different genetic origins with a mean accuracy of 96.2% +/- 0.8 SD. A total of 3.8% of test individuals were misclassified, most probably due to limited differentiation between the subspecies caused by close geographical proximity, or human interference of genetic integrity of reference subspecies, or a combination thereof. Conclusions The diagnostic tool presented here will contribute to a sustainable conservation and support breeding activities in order to preserve the genetic heritage of European honey bees.The SmartBees project was funded by the European Commission under its FP7 KBBE programme (2013.1.3-02, SmartBees Grant Agreement number 613960) https://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7.MP was supported by a Basque Government grant (IT1233-19). The funders provided the financial support to the research, but had no role in the design of the study, analysis, interpretations of data and in writing the manuscript

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee Apis Cerana 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 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

Effect of miticides amitraz and fluvalinate on reproduction and productivity of honey bee Apis mellifera

Varroa destructor is a well-known ectoparasite of the honey bee Apis mellifera. Amitraz and fluvalinate are highly effective miticides used against V. destructor infestation in colonies of honey bee A. mellifera. Though honey bees more resistant to miticides, there are side effects of these chemicals on the reproduction, olfaction, and honey production of honey bees. We showed a negative impact of miticides amitraz and fluvalinate on honey production and reproduction of honey bee colonies. Also, we assumed the reduction of olfaction of honey bees by fluvalinate due to changes of expression of olfactory related neuropeptide genes short neuropeptide F sNPF, tachykinin TK, short neuropeptide F receptor sNPFR. The external treatment of honey bee colonies by miticides amitraz and fluvalinate along with a positive effect of pest control harms reproductivity, honey productivity, and, probably, can reduce learning and memory, gustation and olfaction of honey bees. When used for a short time and with care, miticides can be less harmful to honey bees. Breeding varroa-resistant honey bees allow to reduce the use of miticides and produce organic honey. Therefore, the further development of beekeeping should be in the direction of selection for disease and Varroa resistance and adaptation to the environment.Varroa, bal arısı Apis mellifera'nın iyi bilinen bir ektoparazitidir. Amitraz ve fluvalinat, bal arısı A. mellifera kolonilerinde V. destructor istilasına karşı kullanılan oldukça yüksek etkili akarisitlerdir. Bal arıları, akarisitlere karşı daha dirençli olsalar da, bu kimyasalların bal arılarının üreme, koku alma ve bal üretimi üzerinde yan etkileri vardır. Bu çalışma ile Akarisitler olan amitraz ve fluvalinatın bal üretimi ve bal arısı kolonilerinin üremesi üzerinde olumsuz bir etkisi olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, bal arılarının Fluvalinat’a bağlı olarak koku alma duyusunun azalması durumunu ilgili nöropeptid genlerinin kısa nöropeptid F sNPF, taşikinin TK, kısa nöropeptid F reseptörü sNPFR ifadesindeki değişiklik olduğunu varsaydık. Bal arısı kolonilerinin akarisitler olan amitraz ve fluvalinate ile kontrol edilmesi, haşere kontrolünün olumlu etkisiyle birlikte üremeye, bal verimliliğine zarar verir ve muhtemelen bal arılarının öğrenmesini ve hafızasını, lezzetini ve kokusunu muhtemelen azaltabilir. Kısa bir süre ve özenle kullanıldığında, akarisit kullanımı bal arılarına daha az zarar verebilir. Varroaya dirençli bal arılarının yetiştirilmesi, akarisit kullanımını azaltmaya ve organik bal üretmeye izin verir. Bu nedenle, arıcılığın daha da geliştirilmesi için seçim; hastalıklara, Varroa’ya dirençli ve çevreye uyum yönünde olmalıdır

Apis cerana Fabricius, 1793 in Sumatra: Haplotype Variations of Mitochondrial DNA and the Molecular Relationship with the Asian Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Honey bee Apis cerana is widely distributed in Asia and the Indonesian archipelago, including Sumatra. We studied the molecular variations of A. cerana using cytochrome c oxidase subunits 1 and 2 genes (cox1 and cox2) and the cox1/cox2 intergenic spacers (igs) in several altitudes in the six provinces of Sumatra. We explored the haplotype distributions of those three mtDNA markers for A. cerana in the low-, mid-, and highlands of Sumatra. We also analyzed their relationship with A. cerana in Sundaland and Asia using those markers. Our study revealed 12 new haplotypes of A. cerana cox1 in Sumatra, while nine and eight new haplotypes for cox2 and igs, respectively. Apis cerana in North Sumatra, Lampung, and South Sumatra had the three highest haplotype variations. Most of the specific haplotypes of inter-colony A. cerana from Sumatra were found in the lowlands, while most were in the highlands for intra-colony variations. We found low gene flow among populations of A. cerana in Sumatra. One haplotype, Sumatra4 cox2 from North Sumatra, was the same as Java3 haplotype, presumably due to anthropogenic impact. The molecular phylogenetic tree of A. cerana in the Sundaland revealed that A. cerana from Sumatra has a close relationship to those of Borneo compared to Java

Phylogenetic Relationships of Russian Far-East Apis cerana with Other North Asian Populations

Apis cerana Fabricius, 1793 is the eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia from the tropical climate in the southern part to the temperate climate in the northern part. We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of A. cerana from Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai of the Russian Far East and uploaded it to the database GenBank (AP018450). MtDNA sequence has 15,919 bp length, AT-content 84% and GC-content 16% 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 proteincoding genes start with ATT and ATG codons, except for ATC, the start codon of the ATP8 gene, which and stop with the common stop codons TAA and TAG. A comparative analysis of complete mtDNA of A. cerana from China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan found that the Russian Far East Apis cerana differed from others on the subspecies level. Based on the comparative analysis of complete mtDNA (~16,000 bp), nuclear DNA (nDNA) gene Vitellogenin (VG) (~4,100 bp) and morphological measurements (six parameters), we assumed that the Russian Far-East A. cerana can be a distinct northern Asia population and can be described as a separate unique subspecies of A. c. ussuriensis subsp. nov. A. c. koreana subsp. nov. is also validated and described as a new subspecies

Supplementary 1 The ingroup of Apis cerana and outgroup species used for haplotype and phylogenetic analysis based on the cox1, cox2 genes, and igs

<p>The ingroup of <em>Apis cerana</em> and outgroup species used for haplotype and phylogenetic analysis based on the <em>cox1, cox2</em> genes, and igs </p&gt