Honeybee genome

By Steve Yaninek
Purdue Entomology
October 27, 2006

Photo by: Jeff Pettis, USDA-ARS Bee Research Lab

The honey bee genome was published today in the journal Nature. "A special Nature web focus celebrates the publication of the honeybee genome with exclusive video interviews and news analysis of the primary research papers alongside a comprehensive archive of all matters Apis mellifera. Selected articles are FREE ACCESS."

Greg Hunt and members of his lab (Christine Emore and David Schlipalius) are part of the consortium credited for this effort. Greg Hunt, Christine Emore, and Greg’s collaborator in Mexico, Ernesto Guzman-Novoa, are co-authors on a companion paper published the day before in Genome Research on the "Exceptionally high levels of recombination across the honey bee genome." Greg is also the lead author on another companion paper on the "Behavioral genomics of honeybee foraging and nest defense." currently in press in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

"Analysis finds social insects are more similar in some ways to vertebrates than to other insects.

The genome sequence of the western honeybee may help explain the molecular and genetic basis of this insect's unusual sociality, according to the authors of the published sequence in this week's Nature. The Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium has completed the first draft of the sequence, as well as a spate of analyses covering the development, reproduction, gene regulation, neurobiology and behavior, and population genetics of the insect." TheScientist