A toolkit for studying Varroa genomics and transcriptomics: preservation, extraction, and sequencing library preparation

The honey bee parasite Varroa destructor is the leading causes of honey bee population declines worldwide. In addition to being an obligate ectoparasitic mite, Varroa mites carry a number of viruses that infect the honey bee acting as a vector, similar to mosquitoes. In this study we carried out preservation testing experiments where Varroa mites were immersed in TRIzol, RNAlater, and absolute ethanol as well as preservation periods of 5, 10, 15, and 21 days post-treatment to assess DNA and RNA integrity. Additionally we conducted downstream analysis using library preparation and next generation sequencing (NGS) to assess if DNA and RNA quality was sufficient to map sequence reads to V. destructor.