A New Metazoan Recombination Rate Record and Consistently High Recombination Rates in the Honey Bee Genus Apis Accompanied by Frequent Inversions but Not Translocations.
Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) far exceed the commonly observed 1–2 meiotic recombination events per chromosome and exhibit the highest Metazoan recombination rate (20 cM/Mb) described thus far. However, the reasons for this exceptional rate of recombination are not sufficiently understood. In a comparative study, we report on the newly constructed genomic linkage maps of Apis florea and Apis dorsata that represent the two honey bee lineages without recombination rate estimates so far. Each linkage map was generated de novo, based on SNP genotypes of haploid male offspring of a single female. The A. florea map spans 4,782 cM with 1,279 markers in 16 linkage groups. The A. dorsata map is 5,762 cM long and contains 1,189 markers in 16 linkage groups. Respectively, these map sizes result in average recombination rate estimates of 20.8 and 25.1 cM/Mb. Synteny analyses indicate that frequent intra-chromosomal rearrangements but no translocations among chromosomes accompany the high rates of recombination during the independent evolution of the three major honey bee lineages. Our results imply a common cause for the evolution of very high recombination rates in Apis. Our findings also suggest that frequent homologous recombination during meiosis might increase ectopic recombination and rearrangements within but not between chromosomes. It remains to be investigated whether the resulting inversions may have been important in the evolutionary differentiation between honey bee species.
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Olav
O
Rueppell
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Ryan
R
Kuster
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Katelyn
K
Miller
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Bertrand
B
Fouks
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Sara
S
Rubio Correa
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Juan
J
Collazo
Ratchaburi Campus, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand.
Mananya
M
Phaincharoen
Agricultural Research Station, Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia.
Salim
S
Tingek
Molecular Ecology, Institute of Biology/Zoology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle an der Saale, Germany.
Nikolaus
N
Koeniger
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics*; D007446:Chromosome Inversion; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D049750:Genome, Insect; D008297:Male; D059645:Mutation Rate; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
crossover; linkage map; social evolution; genome structure; recombination rate; chromosome evolution