Browsing by Author "Al Shagour, Banan"
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- Exploiting the mitogenomes of apis mellifera subspecies to develop an authentication tool to verify the entomological origin of mediterranean honeysPublication . Honrado, Mónica; Henriques, Dora; Santos, Joana; Yadró Garcia, Carlos A.; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Nanetti, Antonio; González, Amelia Virginia; Al Shagour, Banan; Hosri, Chadi; Farrugia, Dylan; Giovanni, Cilia; Zammit Mangion, Marion; Muz, Mustafa Necati; Haddad, Nizar; Galea, Thomas; Haider, Yamina; Obeidat, Wisam; Aglagane, Abdessamad; Arab, Alireza; Varnava, Andri; Eissa, Asmaa Anwar; Muz, Dilek; Hatjina, Fani; Lamghari, Fouad; Arruda, James; Caristos Caristos, Leonidas; Pinto, M. Alice; Amaral, Joana S.Honey is highly susceptible to adulteration. Currently, the assessment of its geographical origin remains one of the most difficult tasks, which is typically performed by melyssopalynology. Recently, the attention has shifted towards indirect approaches such as the entomological origin based on geographical distribution patterns of honey bee subspecies. Although queens’ trade has impacted the natural subspecies distribution, honeys produced with autochthonous bees or bearing a Protected Designation of Origin specifying the producing honey bee subspecies, offer a unique avenue for authentication. In the MEDIBEES project, we aim to develop a DNA-metabarcoding approach to authenticate honey's entomological origin focusing on mitochondrial lineages A, M, C, and O. To achieve this goal, the DNA from 1251 honey bees representing 16 subspecies (A.m. sahariensis, A.m. intermissa, A.m. siciliana, A.m. ruttneri, A.m. iberiensis, A.m. ligustica, A.m. macedonica, A.m. adami, A.m. cecropia, A.m. cypria, A.m. caucasia, A.m. meda, A.m. anatoliaca, A.m. syriaca, A.m. jemenitica, A.m. lamarcki) was extracted and the whole genome sequenced. From those, 740 mitogenomes were assembled using the MitoZ software. The quality of the assembled mitogenome was assessed by aligning all the sequences using MEGA and 348 samples were deleted. Finally, a phylogenetic analysis was conducted to eliminate non-local subspecies, resulting in a total of 326 mitogenomes. This dataset was used for calculating the fixation index (FST) pairwise values, and a sliding window of 400bp was used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms that effectively differentiate (FST>0.98) the four lineages, enabling the identification of promising regions for primer design. In this study, three regions were identified that discriminate the four maternal lineages while showing an appropriate length for metabarcoding, namely in the COI, ND1 gene, and CYTB genes.
- Genomic insights into middle eastern honey bee subspecies: population structure and genetic integrityPublication . Henriques, Dora; Yadró Garcia, Carlos A.; Honrado, Mónica; Amaral, Joana S.; Muz, Mustafa Necati; Muz, Dilek; Haddad, Nizar; Al Shagour, Banan; Obeidat, Wisam; Hosri, Chadi; Arab, Alireza; Arruda, James; Lamghari, Fouad; Rufino, José; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Nanetti, Antonio; Pinto, M. AliceThe genetic patterns of Middle Eastern A. mellifera subspecies have been understudied, hindering a comprehensive understanding of honey bee evolutionary history. Here, we studied the genetic integrity of five Middle Eastern subspecies across a broad geographical range: Turkey (A. m. anatoliaca, N=97; A. m. caucasia, N=75; A. m. syriaca, N=18), Jordan and Lebanon (A. m. syriaca, N=238 and N=29), Iran (A. m. meda, N=75), Oman, and the UAE (A. m. jemenitica, N=13 and N=10). ADMIXTURE and PCA analyses were conducted on SNPs detected from whole-genomes. Our findings reveal concerning conservation statuses for many populations/subspecies. In A. m. caucasia and A. m. anatoliaca, only 10 and 28 samples, respectively, were pure (introgression < 90%). In the A. m. caucasia range, 60 samples were hybrids of A. m. caucasia, A. m. syriaca, and A. m. ligustica. In the A. m. anatoliaca range, 69 samples showed high hybridization degrees with A. m. syriaca, and A. m. caucasia. Only six samples in the Turkish range of the A. m. syriaca range were identified as pure, while the rest were also hybrids. All samples from Jordan and Lebanon showed variable A. m. ligustica introgression. In Iran, 23 samples were classified as pure A. m. meda. The rest showed introgression primarily due to A. m. ligustica and A. m. caucasia. In the UAE, two main groups were identified: the first comprised hybrids of A. m. jemenitica, A. m. lamarckii and A. m. ligustica, and the second group mainly consisted of hybrids of A. m. lamarckii and A. m. ligustica. Oman stands out as the sole location where all samples were identified as pure A. m. jemenitica. This study indicates widespread hybridization across various regions and underscores the urgent need for targeted conservation efforts for Middle Eastern subspecies.