The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is an important pollinator in North America and a federally listed endangered species. Putting together its genome is part of the Beenome 100 project, a first-of-its-kind effort to create a library of high-quality, highly detailed genome maps of 100 or more diverse bee species found in the United States.
The rusty patched bumblebee is an important pollinator of bergamot, milkweed, and other wildflowers, as well as crops such as cranberries, plums, apples and alfalfa.
The species was once abundant and widespread in Canada and the United States.
Like its close relatives in the subgenus Bombus of North America, the rusty patched bumblebee underwent significant population decline and range collapse throughout its known historic distribution over the past several decades.
Hypotheses proposed on the cause of their decline include the transmission of pathogens, specifically Vairimorpha bombi (formerly called Nosema bombi), from managed to wild bumblebee populations, habitat loss and degradation, small population biology, and climate change.
Compounding evidence for their decline at multiple spatial scales prompted the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to list rusty patched bumblebee as Endangered in 2010 and 2017, respectively.
To support the genetic assessment of the species’ populations, Dr. Jonathan B. Uhaud Koch from the ARS Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research Unit and his colleagues sequenced the high-quality, chromosome-scale genome of the species from a single wild caught male in Minnesota in 2020.
“With the amount of detailed information that we and other researchers now have access to in the newly sequenced genome, we have an opportunity to find a whole different approach to strengthening rusty patched bumblebee populations,” Dr. Koch said.
“Some of the factors contributing to the decline of rusty patched…
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