Percorrer por autor "Farrugia, Dylan"
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- Conservation status of Apis mellifera ruttneri inferred from whole genome sequencesPublication . Pinto, M. Alice; Ariel Yadró, Carlos; Henriques, Dora; Zammit Mangion, Marion; Galea, Thomas; Farrugia, Dylan; Cilia, Giovanni; Noureddine, Adjlane; Rufino, José; Nanetti, Antonio; Martín-Hernández, RaquelApis mellifera ruttneri is the native honey bee subspecies from the Maltese islands (Malta, Comino and Gozo). This African-lineage subspecies is adapted to the harsh environmental conditions and to the limited forage season of these islands. For many years, it was considered highly hybridized, due to the large and sustained importation of foreign subspecies, especially A. m. ligustica, perceived by many beekeepers as superior or for commercial reasons. Recent studies based on morphometry and mitochondrial DNA have suggested the occurrence of A. m. ruttneri, particularly in the main island. Conservation initiatives and a breeding program have been developed, but to date its conservation status is not fully known. As part of the MEDIBEES project, here, over 50 A. m. ruttneri georeferenced colonies collected from across Malta, as well as 50 several reference subspecies (A. m. ligustica, A. m. siciliana, A. m. iberiensis, A. m. sahariensis, and A. m. intermissa) were whole genome sequenced. The population structure and admixture were assessed from genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms using model and distance based-methods. The results show varying levels of admixture proportions of A. m. ruttneri with C-lineage honey bees across Malta but also a shared ancestry with the honey bees of north Africa, consistent with the putative natural colonization from Africa in ancient times.
- 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.
- General beekeeping practices and main stressors identified by beekeepers in the MediterraneanPublication . Nanetti, Antonio; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Zammit Mangion, Marion; Alice Pinto, M.; Farrugia, Dylan; Zammit Mangion, Rachel; Noureddine, Adjlane; Eissa, Asmaa Anwar; Cilia, Giovanni; Daour, Ahmad Yousef; Garrido, Claudia; Haddad, Nizar; Henriques, Dora; Hosri, Chadi; Muz, Mustafa Necati; Sagastume, Soledad; Galea, Thomas; Medibees ConsortiumBeekeeping is an ecologically and economically important activity in the Mediterranean that is increasingly under threat from a combination of factors. In the MEDIBEES (Monitoring the Mediterranean honey bee subspecies and their resilience to climate change for the improvement of sustainable agro-ecosystems) PRIMA project we aim to identify honey bees that show resilience to stressors associated with climate change. An important first step in our work was to establish baseline data of practices in the region through the administering of a questionnaire on the beekeeping practices. Over 1022 responses were received from beekeepers in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. Beekeeping was overwhelmingly male dominated (ratio 9:1) and practiced largely by the middle-aged (mainly between 40-50 years). The majority of beekeepers reported having 10-50 boxes with the exceptions of Algeria and Jordan where the majority reported keeping more than 100 hive boxes. Across the Mediterranean the Langstroth hive box was most commonly used. Despite the perception of migratory beekeeping being frequently practiced, only Lebanon and Turkey reported significant levels of transhumance (>50.0 and 70.0% of beekeepers respectively). 51.2% of beekeepers reported practicing queen rearing with the majority of these (51.4%) reporting re-queening their colonies every 2 years. Interestingly, the majority of all beekeepers agreed with the statement that their native honey bee is endangered where pesticide use, lack of adequate forage and parasite infestations such as the Varroa mite were repeatedly cited as causing the greatest losses to honey bees in general. Climate change and urbanisation were also linked with colony losses by causing habitat loss. Supplementary feeding was reported to be an integral part of beekeeping in this region, with beekeepers reporting using between 0-5kg, closely followed by 6-10 kg of additional sugars.
- Main practices, challenges and expected solution identified in the Mediterranean beekeeping industryPublication . Mangion, Marion Zammit; Farrugia, Dylan; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Nanetti, Antonio; Pinto, M. Alice; Muz, Mustafa Necati; Haddad, Nizar; Hosri, Chadi; Noureddine, Adjlane; Daour, Ahmad YousefGlobally honeybees are threatened by a plethora of biotic and abiotic stressors. One factor of great concern is climate change due to its direct impact on wild and agricultural ecosystems. Indeed beekeeping, with its symbiotic interdependence with vegetation, is an industry that will be strongly affected by climate change. Although the Mediterranean is a region that is highly vulnerable to climate change, no study has comprehensively analysed the possible effects on honeybees. The MEDIBEES project aims to remedy this situation by studying the honeybee subspecies native to the Mediterranean region and their resilience to climate change, in an attempt to safeguard the beekeeping sector. In this framework, the following approaches were adopted to determine the common Practices, Challenges and Problems in the region and to identify scientific gaps and solutions expected by beekeepers: • Review of the effects of biotic and abiotic stressors on honeybee colonies as well as legislation in the MEDIBEES consortium to identify common threats. • Study of current challenges, priority areas considered by beekeepers as important to survive as an industry, beekeeping practices and existing resources in each country to determine common trends and challenges across the Mediterranean. • Analysis of the responses to a questionnaire distributed among 1160 beekeepers to obtain information on stakeholder practices, challenges faced and the main problems encountered. In this way, a profile of beekeeping activity and beekeepers in the region was obtained. The main challenges and problems identified were: a) changes in weather patterns that could be affect colony dynamics, production losses and increasing mortality; b) of incidence of pathogens in the area (Varroa destructor, Nosema ceranae, SBV and DWV) and the lack of training programmes to control them; c) agricultural insecticides and acaricide residues. As main areas of interest, beekeepers pointed out the possible existence of adapted ecotypes, the need for training to distinguish between hybrids and purebreds, and the study of the effect that climate change will have on phenology and plant availability and on changes in the distribution areas of pathogens in the area. This project is part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Union.