Apis mellifera population genomics using honey DNA.. Apis mellifera population genomics using honey DNA.

As honey contains DNA traces from all organisms that directly or indirectly contributed or were involved in their production steps, including the honey bees, we designed and tested a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel based on the AmpliSeq genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology to analyse A. mellifera nuclear genome variants directly from honey environmental DNA. The assay, that targets 121 SNPs (97 SNPs informative for honey bee subspecies identification and 24 SNPs associated with economic relevant traits of the colonies) was used to genotype DNA extracted from honey.