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Association of Honey Bee SNPs with Varroa destructor mite resistance
Phone: (936) 825-4784
Email: beebuzzboys@aol.com
Title: CEO and Manager
Phone: (936) 825-7312
Email: beebuzzboys@aol.com
"Honey bee pollination is estimated to contribute over $14 billion annually to
agricultural production. Honey bee pollination services in the larger ecosystem are
also of vital importance. However, apiculture in the United States is threatened,
especially by infestations of exotic parasitic mites. Varroa destructor, in particular, is
lethal to many colonies, decimating both feral and managed honey bee populations.
But some strains of managed bees have been identified that exhibit resistance to, or
tolerance of Varroa, including invasive Africanized Honey Bee (AHB).. Thus, these
resistant populations may provide a reservoir of advantageous genetic variation..
Identification of molecular markers that are associated with Varroa resistance in these
populations would enable more efficient screening of colonies for resistant
phenotypes and accelerate production of Varroa resistant bees. Therefore,
identification of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes that are
associated with Varroa destructor resistance would provide new technological
innovation to support marker-assisted breeding of Varroa resistant honey bees,
benefiting the entire Apiculture industry, as well as all pollination-dependent
agriculture.
We propose collecting drones and/or worker bees from: (a) feral colonies that
have survived despite Varroa parasitism; (b) 5 managed strains or lines that exhibit
high levels of Varroa resistance; (c) and samples of worker bees or drones from
susceptible strains. These samples will be genotyped for 1536 SNPs each. Phase I
results will be subjected to principal component analysis, Bayesian haplotype analysis
and sum statistics to identify those SNPs and haplotypes that are most closely
associated with mite resistance."
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *