CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- What do fruit flies, mosquitoes, silk moths and honey bees have in common? First, they are all insects. Second, they have all had their genomes sequenced, a feat that will make it much easier to discern both similarities and differences.

The honey bee (Apis mellifera) has just joined this elite club. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with scientists at other institutions, have already begun probing the honey bee genome for its many secrets. The primary discoveries found so far are presented in the Oct. 26 issue of Nature, and in other scientific journals.

Why sequence the honey bee genome?

"Honey bees are the premier pollinators on Earth, and play a vital role in our nation's economy and food supply," said Gene Robinson, the G. William Arends Professor of Integrative Biology in the department of entomology at Illinois, and director of the U. of I. Bee Research Facility. "Honey bees account for 10 to 20 billion dollars of food produced in America alone, per year," he said.

Honey bees are also very valuable to scientists as model research organisms. "In biology and biomedicine, honey bees are used to study many diverse areas, including allergic disease, development, gerontology, neuroscience, social behavior and venom toxicology," Robinson said. "Because they live in intricate societies, we can view the traits that honey bees exhibit through a prism of extreme sociality."

The Honey Bee Genome Project originated in 1999 when Robinson and Daniel Weaver, a commercial beekeeper in Texas, joined forces to pitch the project. Robinson organized the academic community, while Weaver sought support from the bee industry.

With funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the sequencing began in December 2002, and was performed by George Weinstock and colleagues at the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

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Contact: James E. Kloeppel
kloeppel@uiuc.edu
217-244-1073
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
25-Oct-2006