Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
1901 South First Street, Suite A
CHAMPAIGN,IL 61820
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
(N/A)
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Cooperator will sequence and conduct bioinformatics analysis of U.S. bee species. Specific objectives include: 1) Sequence the genomes of 35 bee species. 2) Determine miRNA regulation of lipid loss in honey bees. 3) Use CRISPR to study honey bee biology and health during "prenatal" development.
Project Methods
There are 4,000 bee species in the United States, many of interest to agriculture, and all of interest to biodiversity. In support of efforts to ensure pollination of crops and plants in our natural ecosystems, and sharing the goal of the Earth BioGenome Project to sequence the genomes of all plants, animals, insects, and fungi, ARS and the Cooperator will sequence bee genomes to international standards and use bioinformatics approaches to glean useful information needed to safeguard the Nation's pollinators.