Elevational melanism in East African Honey Bees involves a Major-Effect locus

Clicks: 4
ID: 332326
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #106 of 106 articles by views in genome biology and evolution

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Thermal melanism, whereby darker pigmentation occurs in colder environments, is a widespread pattern, yet its genetic and physiological basis in eusocial insects remains poorly understood. East African honey bees (Apis mellifera) occupy elevational gradients in which highland populations are darker, larger, and more cold tolerant than lowland conspecifics. Here, we integrated population genomics, structural variations, and functional genomics to investigate elevational melanism. We sampled, phenotyped and resequenced 139 workers from five East African mountain systems. A genome wide association study identified 977 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with abdominal pigmentation, with a single, peak at the ebony ortholog AmEbony on chromosome 1. Allelic variation at AmEbony formed three genetic clusters tracking a continuous pigmentation gradient, and 77 divergent SNPs (DXY = 1) almost perfectly discriminated dark from light bees. Two inversions (r7, r9), previously linked to high elevation adaptation, were detected across additional mountain systems and enriched in dark, highland genomic backgrounds, but did not replace AmEbony as the primary pigmentation locus. CRISPR/Cas9 disruption of AmEbony in A. m. carnica produced darker adults in a qualitative comparison, supporting a conserved role in pigmentation. Head RNA-seq and GENIE3 analysis identified recurrent genotype-associated modules involving oxidoreductase activity and odorant binding. Because population structure covaries with elevation and pigmentation, the GWAS supports AmEbony as a major-effect locus but cannot identify causal variants. Similarly, head-expression data identify molecular changes associated with AmEbony disruption, but cannot establish whether they contribute to pigmentation or whether naturally segregating East African alleles act through the same pathways.
Reference Key
openalex_W7221746934 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Marco Mazzoni, Florian Loidolt, Sonja Kersten, Mark Otieno, Henry Njovu, Julius Vincent Lasway, Ricarda Scheiner, Martin Hasselmann
Journal genome biology and evolution
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/gbe/evag260
URL
https://academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gbe/evag260/71926661/evag260.pdf
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.