Comparative genomics of bumblebees

Bumblebees are a group of creatures belonging to the genus Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). There are about 250 known bumblebee species belonging to 15 subgenus, mainly limited to temperate, alpine and arctic zones of the northern hemisphere. The distribution elevation significantly varies among different species, even between closely related species within some subgenus. The obviously deviations of elevation among bumblebees largely facilitate us to analyze elevation effects on molecular evolution rates. Here we sampled bumblebees from different elevations and sequenced their whole genomes. Based on analyses at the genomic level, we tried to test whether the species from high elevations had a slower molecular evolution rate than those from low elevations and if it was true what was the potential mechanisms influencing the molecular evolution rate of different elevations.