Development of a 44K SNP Assay focussing on the analysis of a varroa specific defense behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica)

Honey bees are exposed to a number of damaging pathogens and parasites. The most destructive among them is maybe Varroa destructor. A promising approach to prevent its spread is to breed for Varroa tolerant honey bees. A trait which has been shown to provide significant resistance against the Varroa mite is hygienic behavior, a behavioral response of honey bee workers to brood diseases in general. This study reports the development of a 44K SNP-assay, specifically designed for the analysis of hygienic behavior of individual worker bees (Apis mellifera carnica) directed against Varroa destructor. Initially, 70,000 SNPs published by the Honey Bee Genome Project were validated for their suitability in the analysis of Varroa tolerance. This was achieved by genotyping of pooled DNA-samples of trait bearers and two trait-negative controls. Roughly 36,000 of these validated SNPs and another 8,000 SNPs not validated in this study were selected for the construction of a SNP-assay. This assay wil...