Molecular Entomology, 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 28-38 http://emtoscipublisher.com/index.php/me 28 Research Insight Open Access Pollinator Evolution in Response to Agricultural Practices: Insights from Bee Populations Jia Xing, Xueyan Chen Tropical Animal Resources Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources (HITAR), Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding author: xueyan.chen@hitar.org Molecular Entomology, 2025, Vol.16, No.1 doi: 10.5376/me.2025.16.0004 Received: 28 Dec., 2024 Accepted: 06 Feb.,2025 Published: 16 Feb., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Xing and Chen, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Xing J., and Chen X.Y., 2025, Pollinator evolution in response to agricultural practices: insights from bee populations, Molecular Entomology, 16(1): 28-38 (doi: 10.5376/me.2025.16.0004) Abstract This study analyzes how modern agricultural practices drive adaptive evolution of honey bee populations in terms of genomic detoxification ability, foraging behavior, and population genetic structure. The study found that long-term pesticide exposure may prompt honey bees to evolve detoxification gene mutations to improve survival, while crop monoculture forces honey bees to adjust their foraging strategies or behavioral rhythms to cope with the nutritional pressure brought about by resource homogeneity. Large-scale landscape changes and habitat fragmentation reduce the genetic diversity of honey bees and aggravate local population isolation. In addition, pathogen spillover and genetic disturbance caused by commercial beekeeping activities also have a negative impact on wild bees. To mitigate the adverse effects of agricultural practices on honey bee evolution, this study discusses strategies such as reducing pesticide use, enriching farmland landscape diversity, and promoting diversified agricultural systems. It also looks forward to future research directions, including the use of genomics technology to monitor honey bee adaptive changes and the importance of integrating pollinator protection concepts in agricultural management. This study aims to deepen the understanding of the evolutionary adaptation of honey bee populations in agricultural ecosystems and provide a reference for the formulation of pollinator protection and sustainable agricultural management strategies. Keywords Bees; Pollinators; Agricultural practices; Evolutionary adaptation; Genetic diversity; Ecological management 1 Introduction Pollinators provide indispensable ecological services for agricultural production. Many major food and cash crops in the world rely on insect pollination to improve yield and quality (Katumo et al., 2022; Reilly et al., 2024). Pollinators such as bees promote crop fruiting through pollination, so that about 75% of global crop yields benefit from animal pollination to varying degrees. Studies have shown that when pollination services are insufficient, the yield of some crops will be limited, which has been confirmed in the United States and other places. Not only crops, but also the reproduction of wild plants is highly dependent on the activities of pollinators. The presence of pollinators maintains the plant diversity and function of many ecosystems. Therefore, pollinators are known as the key functional group of agricultural ecosystems, and their diversity and abundance directly affect food production and ecological balance. However, in recent years, many parts of the world have reported a decline in the population of pollinating insects, which has raised concerns about agricultural production and ecological stability. In particular, as the main pollinator, the health of bees is closely related to food security. Ensuring the diversity and function of pollinators is of key significance to maintaining the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. Honey bees (including farmed honey bees and wild solitary bees, bumble bees, etc.) are particularly important among many pollinating insects and are often used as model organisms to study pollination ecology and evolution (Hristov et al., 2020; Osterman et al., 2021). On the one hand, the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a widely raised pollinating insect worldwide and has been introduced to various places to provide pollination services for a variety of economic crops. Due to its easy breeding and management and significant pollination benefits, honey bees have become the focus of attention when studying agricultural pollination issues. On the other hand, honey bees have complex social behaviors and navigation and foraging abilities, which are unique in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology research (Quigley et al., 2019; Papa et al., 2022).
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