Project number: 18.00.17.05.04

Genetics and Breeding of Pathogen-Resistant Honey Bees

Honey bees are periodically subjected not just to old diseases, but also to new parasites from other regions of the world. The control methods undertaken by beekeepers are cumbersome to implement, and have not always managed to prevent sometimes significant and recurrent colony losses. Through selection work, might we obtain a honey bee that could face these threats on its own? Would its resistance be transmissible from one generation to the next, and would it have negative consequences for other desired traits? On the basis of what criteria can we simply select a resistance trait? In this project, we try to answer these questions, based on native honey bee populations (Apis mellifera mellifera) adapted to Swiss conditions.

Guichard M., Dainat B., Eynard S., Vignal A., Servin B., The Beestrong Consortium, Neuditschko M.
Identification of quantitative trait loci associated with calmness and gentleness in honey bees using whole‐genome sequences.
Animal Genetics, online, (10 May), 2021, 1-10.

Momeni J., Parejo M., Nielsen R. O., Lang J., Montes I., Papoutsis, Farajzadeh L., Bendixen C., Căuia E., Charrière J.-D., Coffey M. F., Costa C., Dall'Olio R., De la Rúa P., Drazic M. M. and others
Authoritative subspecies diagnosis tool for European honey bees based on ancestry informative SNPs.
BMC Genetics, 22, (1), 2021, 1-12.

Guichard M., Dainat B.
Zuchtkonzepte für die Honigbiene.
Schweizerische Bienen-Zeitung, 144, (2), 2021, 20-21.
other Languages: french

Parejo M., Charrière J.-D.
Blick in die Vergangenheit mittels Genomanalyse von Museumsbienen.
Schweizerische Bienen-Zeitung, 144, (1), 2020, 29-31.
other Languages: french

Guichard M., Phocas F., Neuditschko M., Basso B., Dainat B.
Zuchtkonzepte für die Honigbiene.
Agroscope Transfer, 333, 2020.
other Languages: french

Parejo M., Wragg D., Henriques D., Charrière J.-D., Estonba A.
Digging into the genomic past of Swiss honey bees by whole-genome sequencing museum specimens.
Genome Biology and Evolution, 12, (12), 2020, 2535-2551.

Mondet F., Parejo M., Meixner M. D., Costa C., Kryger P., Andonov S., Servin B., Basso B., Bieńkowska M., Bigio G., Căuia E., Cebotari V., Dahle B., Dražić M. M., Hatjina F. and others
Evaluation of suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) reveals potential for varroa resistance in European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).
Insects, 11, (9), 2020, 1-17.

Guichard M., Neuditschko M., Soland G., Fried P., Grandjean M., Gerster S., Dainat B., Bijma P., Brascamp E. W.
Estimates of genetic parameters for production, behaviour, and health traits in two Swiss honey bee populations.
Apidologie, online, (28 April), 2020, 1-16.

Guichard M., Neuditschko M., Fried P., Soland G., Dainat B.
Erwartungen an die Varroaresistenz-Selektion bei der Dunklen Biene.
Schweizerische Bienen-Zeitung, 1, 2020, 18-19.
other Languages: french

Henriquez D., Parejo, M., Lopes A.R., Pinto M.A.
Mitochondrial SNP markers to monitor evolutionary lineage ancestry in Apis mellifera mellifera conservation programs.
Apidologie, 50, 2019, 538-541.

Regan T., Barnett M.W., Laetsch D.R., Bush S.J., Wragg D., Budge G.E., Highet F., Dainat B., de Miranda J.R., Watson M., Blaxter M., Tom C. Freeman
Characterisation of the British honey bee.
Nature Communications, 9, (4995), 2018, 1.

Evans J.D., McKenna D., Scully E., Cook S.C., Dainat B., Egekwu N., Grubbs N., Lopez D., Lorenzen M.D., Reyna S.M., Rinkevich F.D., Neumann P., Qiang Huang
Genome of the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida,Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), a worldwide parasite of social bee colonies, provides insights into detoxification and herbivory.
GigaScience, 7, 2018, 1-16.

Parejo M.
Entwicklung einer neuen Methode für die Hybridanalyse bei Honigbienen.
Schweizerische Bienen-Zeitung, 141, (10), 2018, 13-15.
other Languages: french

Henriques D., Parejo M., Vignal A., Wragg D., Wallberg A., Webster M.T., Pint M.A.
Developing reduced SNP assays from whole-genome sequence data to estimate introgression in an organism with complex genetic patterns, the Iberian honeybee (Apis mellifera iberiensis).
Evolutionary Applications, 11, (8), 2018, 1270-1282.

Henriques D., Browne K.A., Barnett M.W., Parejo M., Kryger P., Freeman T.C., Munoz I., Garnery L., Highet F., Spencer Johnston J., McCormack G.P., Pinto M.A.
High sample throughput genotyping for estimating C-lineage introgression in the dark honeybee: An accurate and cost-effective SNP-based tool.
Scientific Reports, 8, 2018, 1-14.

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