Evaluating Genetic Diversity of mtCOI Bombus haemorrhoidalis from Different Regions of Western Himalaya

Author(s): Poonam Kumari and Mahender Singh Thakur

Bumblebees are a diverse group of crucial pollinators for agricultural food production and natural ecosystems worldwide. They are interesting insect pollinators to explore social evolution, behavior and ecology because they have both eusocial and solitary life-cycle stages as well as some social parasite species. Numerous reports of species declines cite the interrelated causes of pathogen spread, habitat loss, pesticide use and global temperature change. Our reliance on a small number of thoroughly researched species for agricultural pollination is particularly hazardous due to these threats to bumblebee diversity. Sanger sequencing was used to analyze the genetic diversity of mtCOI Bombus haemorrhoidalis, which was collected on Punica granatum (wild pomegranate) from seven different Western Himalayan regions. Omega revealed a total of 6 variable sites in the alignment between all the mtCO1 sequences of Bombus haemorrhoidalis. The estimated transition/transversion (Ts/Tv) bias of COI (R) is 1.67. The variation in nucleotide content almost completely exist in the third codon position due to AT rich region, as compared to the first and second position of codons. The transition/transversion (Ts/ Tv) ratio is significant in deducing the magnitude and direction of natural selection. Our study reveals clearly signifies the vast difference among the sampled species proves that there is genetic diversity between the samples collected from different areas of Western Himalaya.