From where did the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) originate?

The native distribution of the Western honeybee (A mellifera) spans Europe, the Middle East and Africa, covering temperate and tropical climates. Nearly 30 subspecies of honeybees have been described to account for the phenotypic variation throughout this vast range but the geographic origin of the species has remained elusive. In a recent paper in Ecology and Evolution (22957195), we reviewed the competing hypotheses about the origin of the species and performed extensive reanalysis of the currently most comprehensive SNP dataset on honeybees (17068261). Go here for the complete article!