Searching for signatures of selection in Iberian honey bee (Apis mellifera iberiensis) using whole genome sequences

The Iberian Peninsula comprises a diverse set of habitats. It was an important glacial refugium during the Pleistocene and has served as a bridge for populations migrating between Africa and Europe, resulting in a complex mix of ancestry and diversity. The Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis) is no exception and has been the subject of numerous incongruent population genetic surveys. Recent mtDNA and SNP analyses indicate a steep northeastern-southwestern cline of African ancestry along the peninsula, which has been explained by selection. Advances in DNA sequencing technology and computational tools provide unprecedented opportunities to study demography, search for signatures of selection across the genome and illuminate its role in shaping genomic diversity. We used Illumina technology to sequence the whole genomes of 86 Iberian honeybees, collected across three longitudinal transects in the Iberian Peninsula and spanning semi-arid climates in the southeastern peninsula to oceanic in the North-West. The dataset was first analyzed for FST-outliers, CLR (composite-likelihood ratio) and EHH (Extended Haplotype Homozygosity) methods were further deployed to evaluate polymorphisms implicated in local adaptation and possibly in the response to human- mediated environmental changes, including known and novel variants in genes related to behavior, vision, xenobiotic detoxification and immune response.