The American Honey Bee

Podcast Ep-07 - The American Honey Bee

These show notes provide a background in the genetic study of honey bees. Called by some, the third industrial revolution in agriculture, it features the development of genetically modified organisms and how that topic relates to honey bees.

Determining what makes up the honey bee genome was pioneered by Dr. Gene Robinson, who wrote an article on the subject in the December 2000 Bee Culture Magazine dedicated to the memory of his advisor, Dr. Roger A. Morse. This is summarized in Dr. Sanford’s website.

The identification of the races of honey bees has always been somewhat of a mystery. Historically it was best determined by measuring physical characteristics of various subspecies. Called morphometrics, this was pioneered by Fredrich Ruttner. It has been replaced via determining the genetic haplotype of honey bees, as described in Dr. Alburaki’s publication referenced above, concentrating on lack of genetic diversity in the genome of New World U.S. honey bees, almost all exclusively imported from the Old World.

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