Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Barcoding stingless bees: genetic diversity of the economically important genus Scaptotrigona in Mesoamerica

  • Original article
  • Published:
Apidologie Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The stingless bee genus Scaptotrigona is widely distributed across tropical Mexico and includes economically important species used in stingless beekeeping. As Scaptotrigona colonies are currently or potentially translocated across regions, it is important to analyze the extent of genetic diversity from different populations. Herein, every analyzed Scaptotrigona individual was correctly assigned through DNA barcoding to the three recognized species (Scaptotrigona mexicana, Scaptotrigona pectoralis, and Scaptotrigona hellwegeri). Intraspecific divergence showed a mean value of 0.70 %, whereas the interspecific value was 2.79 %. As predicted by traditional taxonomy, sequence analyses demonstrated the close affinity of S. mexicana with S. hellwegeri. However, this also suggested the existence of cryptic species within S. mexicana, one of the stingless bees exploited for honey production in Mesoamerica. These results confirm the hypothesis that the DNA barcoding technique may at least differentiate stingless bee taxa accepted by current taxonomy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1.
Figure 2
Figure 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albores-González, M.L., García Guerra, T.G., Durán Olguín, L., Aguliar Ayón, A. (2011) Experiencia de la Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan en el fomento a la cría de las abejas nativas Pitsilnejmej (Scaptotrigona mexicana) in Memorias del VII Seminario Mesaomerciano sobre abejas nativas. pp 95–99

  • Ayala, R. (1999) Revisión de las abejas sin aguijón de México (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Folia Entomol. Mex. 106, 1–123. Xalapa, Veracruz México

    Google Scholar 

  • Crozier, R.H., Crozier, Y.C., Mackinley, A.G. (1989) The CO-I and CO-II region of the honeybee mitochondrial DNA: evidence of variation in insect mitochondrial evolutionary rates. Mol. Biol. Evol. 6, 399–411

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Del Sarto, M.C.L., Peruquetti, R.C., Campos, L.A.O. (2005) Evaluation of the neotropical stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera: Apidae) as pollinator of greenhouse tomatoes. J. Econ. Entomol. 98, 260–266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, A.J., Rambaut, A. (2007) BEAST: Bayesian evolutionary analysis by sampling trees. BMC Evol. Biol. 7, 214

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Engels, W., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V.L. (1990) Caste development, reproductive strategies and control of fertility in honeybees and stingless bees. In: Engels, W. (ed.) Social insects: an evolutionary approach to castes and reproduction, pp. 166–230. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Fontaneto, D., Herniou, E.A., Boschetti, C., Caprioli, M., Melone, G., Ricci, C., Barraclough, T.G. (2007) Independently evolving species in asexual bdelloid rotifers. PLoS Biol. 5, 914–921

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Francoy, T.M., Grassi, M.L., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V.L., May-Itzá, W.D.J., Quezada-Euán, J.J.G. (2011) Geometric morphometrics of the wing as a tool for assigning genetic lineages and geographic origin to Melipona beecheii (Hymenoptera: Meliponini). Apidologie 44, 499–507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freitas, B.M., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V.L., Medina, L.M., Kleinert, A.M.P., Galetto, L., Nates-Parra, G., Quezada-Euán, J.J.G. (2009) Diversity, threats and conservation of native bees in the Neotropics. Apidologie 40, 332–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, J. (2009) Integrative taxonomy identifies new (and old) species in the Lasioglossum (Dialictus) tegulare (Robertson) species group (Hymenoptera, Halictidae). Zootaxa 2032, 1–38

    Google Scholar 

  • González-Peña, D., Gómez-Blanco, D., Reboiro-Jato, M., Fdez-Riverola, F., Posada, D. (2010) ALTER: program-oriented format conversion of DNA and protein alignments. Nucleic Acids Res. 38(suppl 2), W14–W18. doi:10.1093/nar/gkq321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotelli, N.J. (2004) A taxonomic wish-list for community ecology. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. [Biol] 359, 585–597

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heard, T.A. (1999) The role of stingless bees in crop pollination. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 44, 183–206

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hebert, P.D.N., Cywinska, A., Ball, S.L., de Waard, J.R. (2003) Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. [Biol] 270, 313–322

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hebert, P.D.N., Penton, E.H., Burns, J.M., Janzen, D.H., Hallwachs, W. (2004) Ten species in one, DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the neotropical skipper butterfly Astraptes fulgerator. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 101, 14812–14817

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ish-Am, G., Barrientos-Priego, F., Castañeda-Vildozola, A., Gazit, S. (1999) Avocado (Persea americana Mill) pollinators in its region of origin. Rev. Chapingo Ser. Hortic. 5, 137–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Kakutani, T., Inoue, T., Tezuka, T., Maeta, Y. (1993) Pollination of strawberry by the stingless bee, Trigona minangkabau, and the honey bee, Apis mellifera an experimental study of fertilization efficiency. Res. Popul. Ecol. 35, 95–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimura, M. (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J. Mol. Evol. 15, 111–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Librado, P., Rozas, J. (2009) DnaSP v5:A software for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data. Bioinformatics 25, 1451–1452

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • López, J.V., Yuhki, N., Masuda, R., Modi, W., Obrien, S.J. (1994) Numt, a recent transfer and tandem amplification of mitochondrial DNA to the nuclear genome of the domestic cat. J. Mol. Evol. 39, 174–190

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • May-Itzá, W. de J., Quezada-Euán, J.J.G., Ayala, R., De la Rúa, P. (2012) Morphometric and genetic analyses reveal two taxonomic units within Melipona beecheii (Hymenoptera: Meliponidae), a Mesoamerican endangered stingless bee. J. Insect Conerv. doi:10.1007/s10841-012-9457-4

  • May-Itzá, W.D.J., Quezada-Euán, J.J.G., Medina Medina, L.A., Enríquez, E., De la Rúa, P. (2010) Morphometric and genetic differentiation in isolated populations of the endangered Mesoamerican stingless bee Melipona yucatanica (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) suggest the existence of a two species complex. Conserv. Genet. 11, 2079–2084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meier, R., Kwong, S., Vaidya, G., Ng, P.K.L. (2006) DNA Barcoding and taxonomy in Diptera, a tale of high intraspecific variability and low identification success. Syst. Biol. 55, 715–728

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Michener, C.D. (2007) The bees of the world, 2nd edn. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Monaghan, M.T., Wild, R., Elliot, M., Fujisawa, T., Balke, M., Inward, D.J.G., Lees, D.C., Ranaivosolo, R., Eggleton, P., Barraclough, T.G., Vogler, A.P. (2009) Accelerated species inventory on Madagascar using coalescent-based models of species delineation. Syst. Biol. 58, 298–311

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Packer, L., Gibbs, J., Sheffield, C., Kevan, P. (2008) Barcoding the Bees of the World. Anais do VIII Encontro sobre Abelhas Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brasil

  • Pettengill, J.B., Maile, C.N. (2010) An evaluation of candidate plant DNA barcodes and assignment methods in diagnosing 29 species in the genus Agalinis (Orobanchaceae). Am. J. Bot. 97, 1391–1406

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pons, J., Barraclough, T.G., Gomez-Zurita, J., Cardoso, A., Duran, D.P., et al. (2006) Sequence-based species delimitation for the DNA taxonomy of undescribed insects. Syst. Biol. 55, 595–609

    Google Scholar 

  • Quezada-Euán, J.J.G. (2005) Biología y uso de las abejas sin aguijón de la península de Yucatán, México (Hymenoptera: Meliponini). Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. México. pp.112

  • Quezada-Euán, J.J.G. (2009) Potencial de las abejas nativas en la polinización de cultivos. Acta Biol. Colomb. 14, 169–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Quezada-Euán, J.J.G., May-Itzá, W.D.J., Rincón, M., De la Rúa, P., Paxton, R.J. (2012) Genetic and phenotypic differentiation in endemic Scaptotrigona hellwegeri (Apidae: Meliponini): implications for the conservation of stingless bee populations in contrasting environments. Insect Conserv. Divers.. doi:10.1111/j.1752-4598.2011.00179.x

  • Rehan, S.M., Sheffield, C.S. (2011) Morphological and molecular delineation of a new species in the Ceratina dupla species-group (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopinae) of eastern North America. Zootaxa 2873, 35–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, H.A., Murugan, S., Sibon Li, W.L. (2008) Testing the reliability of genetic methods of species identification via simulation. Syst. Biol. 57, 216–230

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roubik, D.W. (1989) Ecology and natural history of tropical bees. Cambridge University Press

  • Sheffield, C.S., Hebert, P.D.N., Kevan, P., Packer, L. (2009) DNA barcoding a regional bee (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) fauna and its potential for ecological studies. Mol. Ecol. Res. 9, 196–207

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Silveira, F.A., Melo, G.A.R., Almeida, E.A.B. (2002) Abelhas do Brasil: Sistemática e Identificação. 1ª edição, Belo Horizonte

  • Slaa, E.J., Sanchez Chaves, L.A., Malagodi-Braga, K.S., Hofstede, F.E. (2006) Stingless bees in applied pollination: practice and perspectives. Apidologie 37, 293–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, J.C., Morales, C.L. (2009) Ecological impacts of invasive alien species on bees. Apidologie 40, 388–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamura, K., Dudley, J., Nei, M., Kumar, S. (2007) MEGA4, Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version 4,0. Mol. Biol. Evol. 24, 1596–1599

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waugh, J. (2007) DNA barcoding in animal species, progress, potential and pitfalls. BioEssays 29, 188–197

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wille, A. (1983) Biology of stingless bees. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 28, 41–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We very much appreciate the helpful comments of Prof. José Serrano and two anonymous reviewers that greatly improved the manuscript. We also acknowledge the help of the stingless beekeepers and Manuel Rincón Rabanales for providing the analyzed samples. This work has been supported by the projects MUTUAL “Mutualismos y abejas en paisajes tropicales: riesgos y rescate para la biodiversidad y la agricultura”, 4293 “Fondo de Cooperación Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnología UE—México” (FONCICYT), and “Conservación de las abejas sin aguijón de México (Hymenoptera: Meliponini): identificación de especies crípticas e indicadores de diversidad genética” (SEP CONACYT 103341-Z).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain

    Miguel Hurtado-Burillo, Carlos Ruiz & Pilar De la Rúa

  2. Departamento de Apicultura, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Apdo. 4-116 Itzimná, 97100, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

    William de Jesús May-Itzá & José Javier G. Quezada-Eúan

Authors
  1. Miguel Hurtado-Burillo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carlos Ruiz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. William de Jesús May-Itzá
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. José Javier G. Quezada-Eúan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pilar De la Rúa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pilar De la Rúa.

Additional information

Manuscript editor: James Nieh

Barcoding des abeilles sans aiguillon: diversité génétique du genre Scaptotrigona, d'importance économique en Amérique centrale.

abeille sans aiguillon / Scaptotrigona / barcoding / espèce cryptique / Amérique centrale

Barcoding von Stachellosen Bienen: Genetische Diversität von Bienen der wirtschaftlich bedeutsamen Gattung Scaptotrigona in Mittelamerika

stachellose bienen / Scaptotrigona / barcoding / kryptische Arten / Mittelamerika

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hurtado-Burillo, M., Ruiz, C., de Jesús May-Itzá, W. et al. Barcoding stingless bees: genetic diversity of the economically important genus Scaptotrigona in Mesoamerica. Apidologie 44, 1–10 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0146-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0146-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation