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Collaborativ project: Establishment of genomic selection in order to improve disease resistance, performance, behaviour, and genetic diversity in the honey bee. Subproject 2
Project
Project code: 28RF372044
Contract period: 12.03.2015
- 28.02.2018
Budget: 357,453 Euro
Purpose of research: Experimental development
With our project we want to establish genomic selection for the honey bee with the aim to improve economically important breeding traits, especially disease resistance. In other species genomic selection is already a valuable tool in the selection of breeding animals. We believe the reproductive and genetic peculiarities of the honey bee render this species particularly suitable for this strategy. For the ultimate goal, the practical implementation of genomic selection in honey bee breeding it is necessary to collect massive amounts of genotyping data with the help of a high-throughput SNP-chip. We want to create and to use these data in order to calibrate breeding values an develop adequate breeding models. In order to establish a basis for genomic selection in the honey bee, we intend to develop a SNP-chip containing between 80,000 and 120,000 SNPs in cooperation with our project partner the Länderinstitut for Bienekunde (LIB). This chip must be suitable for the task to improve resistance against the varroa mite and other honey bee diseases by means of genomic selection. Other breeding traits like honey yield, gentleness and swarming tendency must be considered since regresses won’t be accepted by honey bee breeders. However, for this purpose suitable strategies and methods have to be developed during the project or existing ones must be adapted to the reproductive peculiarities of the honey bee. Of special importance is the integration of genomic data into the BLUP-breeding value estimation already established at the LIB. The identification of trait influencing genomic regions is done by a combination of SNP-Chip studies, mutational and expression analyses using samples with extreme differences in trait characteristics. Based on the achieved results it is intended to develop a smaller and more cost-efficient chip which contains only SNPs relevant for breeding purposes and constitutes from a commercial point of view the main product of this project.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal breeding
- Beekeeping and health
- Computer science
