Honeybee Sequencing: One Honey of an Idea

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 22 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Honeybee Sequencing: One Honey of an Idea The little buzzers are a magic well for discoveries in biology | By Myrna E. Watanabe Photo: Courtesy of Chip Taylor TOGETHERNESS: A swarm of Neotropical African honeybees in Venezuela In late May, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) released its priority list of organisms

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In late May, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) released its priority list of organisms under consideration for entry into the sequencing pipeline: One was the honeybee. It was a move that has numerous supporters. "We feel that sequencing [the bee] ... will provide important tools and unique models for a variety of different areas of biology, including social behavior," says Gene E. Robinson, professor of entomology and director of the neuroscience program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and lead author of the proposal that the NHGRI reviewed.

Robinson ticks off numerous reasons why the honeybee fits the institute's sequencing requirements: Bees are models for learning and memory; for studies of allergic disease; for gerontology research, as the long-lived, egg-producing queen is genetically identical to the much shorter-lived female workers; for studies of venom toxicology; and for studies of infectious diseases in dense societies. "The basic thrust that ...

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  • Myrna Watanabe

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