Honey bee (Apis mellifera) gut virome sequencing

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) crucially contribute to crop production and floral biodiversity via pollination, but their health is increasingly challenged by stressors like pathogens, parasites and agricultural practices. We conducted the largest metagenomic sequencing effort on the honey bee virome to date by collecting a total of 150 pools of 10 bees each from single apiaries (6-10 hives each, 63 in total) in 8 European countries (PT, FR, UK, BE, NL, CH, DE, RO) in spring, summer and autumn 2020. Guts were dissected into midgut, ileum and rectum, yielding 450 samples, undergoing virus-like particle encrichment (NetoVIR protocol) before Nextera library preparation and deep Illumina sequencing.