TERRITORIAL AND SPECIES-SPECIFIC REGULARITIES OF GENOVARSPECIFIC COMBINATIONS IN THE HONEY BEE AND ITS PARASITES

Various host and parasite genetic variants (genovars) have arisen and are maintained in the same population in numerous systems due to host–parasite evolutionary dynamics. Key characteristics differ between genovars: both the ability of parasites to infect, the vulnerability of host genovars, and the outcome of infections are often determined by the genovars of both parties. These host–parasite interactions, on a genovar-by-genovar basis, have significant implications for ecological and evolutionary dynamics. This article examines the distribution of parasite genovars among individual colonies in host populations of the social insect honeybee Apis mellifera. During the parasite detection in exogenous DNA in individual apiaries in 13 study areas in the Republic of Tatarstan, only N. apis, N. ceranae and V. destructor were detected out of 9 species/genera (Nosema apis, N. ceranae, Paenibacillus spp., Melissococcus spp., Lotmaria passim, Crithidia mellificae, Acarapis woodi, Varroa destructor, Tropilaelaps sp). Despite the low diversity of the detected genovars of N. apis, N. ceranae and V. destructor, individuals infected with several genovars of each parasite were present in all colonies. Pathogens in different colonies with genetically diverse A. mellifera populations were in most cases genetically similar to each other.