The taxonomy of honey bee A. mellifera contains a lot of issues due to the specificity of population structure, features of biology and resolutions of honey bee subspecies discrimination methods. There are a lot of transition zones between ranges of subspecies which led to the gradual changes of characteristics among neighbor subspecies. The modern taxonomic pattern of honey bee Apis mellifera is given in this paper. Thirty-three distinct honey bee subspecies are distributed across all Africa (11 subspecies), Western Asia and the Middle East (9 subspecies), and Europe (13 subspecies). All honey bee subspecies are subdivided into 5 evolutionary lineages: lineage A (10 subspecies) and its sublineage Z (3 subspecies), lineage M (3 subspecies), lineage C (10 subspecies), lineage O (3 subspecies), lineage Y (1 subspecies), lineage C or O (3 subspecies).

Background: With numerous endemic subspecies representing four of its five evolutionary lineages, Europe holds a large fraction of Apis mellifera genetic diversity. This diversity and the natural distribution range have been altered by anthropogenic factors. The conservation of this natural heritage relies on the availability of accurate tools for subspecies diagnosis. Based on pool-sequence data from 2145 worker bees representing 22 populations sampled across Europe, we employed two highly discriminative approaches (PCA and F_ST) to select the most informative SNPs for ancestry inference. Results: Using a supervised machine learning (ML) approach and a set of 3896 genotyped individuals, we could show that the 4094 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) provide an accurate prediction of ancestry inference in European honey bees. The best ML model was Linear Support Vector Classifier (Linear SVC) which correctly assigned most individuals to one of the 14 subspecies or different genetic origins with a mean accuracy of 96.2% ± 0.8 SD. A total of 3.8% of test individuals were misclassified, most probably due to limited differentiation between the subspecies caused by close geographical proximity, or human interference of genetic integrity of reference subspecies, or a combination thereof. Conclusions: The diagnostic tool presented here will contribute to a sustainable conservation and support breeding activities in order to preserve the genetic heritage of European honey bees.

In the last decade, metagenomic studies have shown the key role of the gut microbiome in maintaining immune and neuroendocrine systems. Malfunction of the gut microbiome can induce inflammatory processes, oxidative stress, and cytokine storm. Dysfunction of the gut microbiome can be caused by short-term (virus infection and other infectious diseases) or long-term (environment, nutrition, and stress) factors. Here, we reviewed the inflammation and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases and coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Here, we reviewed the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) involved in the processes of formation of oxidative stress and inflammation in viral and neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, the coronavirus uses ACE2 receptors of the RAAS to penetrate human cells. The coronavirus infection can be the trigger for neurodegenerative diseases by dysfunction of the RAAS. Pharmabiotics, postbiotics, and next-generation probiotics, are considered as a means to prevent oxidative stress, inflammatory processes, neurodegenerative and viral diseases through gut microbiome regulation.

Specific conditions of the honeybee life honeybee life require the presence of effective mechanisms of antiinfectious protection whose one of the most important components are defensins—the family of...

Umami taste perception indicates the presence of amino acids, which are essential nutrients. Although the physiology of umami perception has been described in mammals, how insects detect amino acids remains unknown except in Drosophila melanogaster. We functionally characterized a gustatory receptor responding to L-amino acids in the western honey bee, Apis mellifera. Using a calcium-imaging assay and two-voltage clamp recording, we found that one of the honey bee’s gustatory receptors, AmGr10, functions as a broadly tuned amino acid receptor responding to glutamate, aspartate, asparagine, arginine, lysine, and glutamine, but not to other sweet or bitter compounds. Furthermore, the sensitivity of AmGr10 to these L-amino acids was dramatically enhanced by purine ribonucleotides, like inosine-5′-monophosphate (IMP). Contact sensory hairs in the mouthpart of the honey bee responded strongly to glutamate and aspartate, which house gustatory receptor neurons expressing AmGr10. Interestingly, AmGr10 protein is highly conserved among hymenopterans but not other insects, implying unique functions in eusocial insects.