Genomic insights into honey bee health

Honey bees, Apis mellifera, are threatened by parasites and pathogens ranging from viruses to vertebrates. Genomic techniques can be used as prospective tools to identify novel or resurgent pathogens and to identify honey bee proteins whose genes are activated in response to a disease threat. These techniques also strengthen experimental studies of host-parasite interactions, since both honey bees and their disease agents can be queried for genetic changes after infection or other changes in their environment. Finally, genomic analyses of pathogen species can point to species-specific treatments. I will discuss ARS efforts to define genetic traits of bees and their pathogens through large-scale sequencing and gene-expression analyses. These efforts have targeted known threats as well as unknowns, including proposed causes of the enigmatic `Colony Collapse Disorder' of honey bees. I will discuss how a genomic understanding of bee disease agents has indentified pathways important for exploiting bees, along with novel targets for the control of these organisms. One such target is being developed to control the microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae, an emergent disease of bees and a candidate player in honey bee declines.