Jia Xing , Xueyan Chen

Tropical Animal Resources Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources (HITAR), Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Entomology, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 1   
Received: 28 Dec., 2024    Accepted: 06 Feb., 2025    Published: 16 Feb., 2025

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.

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.

Bees; Pollinators; Agricultural practices; Evolutionary adaptation; Genetic diversity; Ecological management