Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera

George M. Weinstock*, Gene E. Robinson, Richard A. Gibbs, Kim C. Worley, Jay D. Evans, Ryszard Maleszka, Hugh M. Robertson, Daniel B. Weaver, Martin Beye, Peer Bork, Christine G. Elsik, Klaus Hartfelder, Greg J. Hunt, Evgeny M. Zdobnov, Gro V. Amdam, Mrcia M.G. Bitondi, Anita M. Collins, Alexandre S. Cristino, H. Michael G. Lattorff, Carlos H. LoboRobin F.A. Moritz, Francis M.F. Nunes, Robert E. Page, Zilá L.P. Simões, Diana Wheeler, Piero Carninci, Shiro Fukuda, Yoshihide Hayashizaki, Chikatoshi Kai, Jun Kawai, Naoko Sakazume, Daisuke Sasaki, Michihira Tagami, Stefan Albert, Geert Baggerman, Kyle T. Beggs, Guy Bloch, Giuseppe Cazzamali, Mira Cohen, Mark David Drapeau, Dorothea Eisenhardt, Christine Emore, Michael A. Ewing, Susan E. Fahrbach, Sylvain Forêt, Cornelis J.P. Grimmelikhuijzen, Frank Hauser, Amanda B. Hummon, Jurgen Huybrechts, Andrew K. Jones, Tatsuhiko Kadowaki, Noam Kaplan, Robert Kucharski, Grard Leboulle, Michal Linial, J. Troy Littleton, Alison R. Mercer, Timothy A. Richmond, Sandra L. Rodriguez-Zas, Elad B. Rubin, David B. Sattelle, David Schlipalius, Liliane Schoofs, Yair Shemesh, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Rodrigo Velarde, Peter Verleyen, Evy Vierstraete, Michael R. Williamson, Seth A. Ament, Susan J. Brown, Miguel Corona, Peter K. Dearden, W. Augustine Dunn, Michelle M. Elekonich, Tomoko Fujiyuki, Irene Gattermeier, Tanja Gempe, Martin Hasselmann, Eriko Kage, Azusa Kamikouchi, Takeo Kubo, Takekazu Kunieda, Marcé Lorenzen, Natalia V. Milshina, Mizue Morioka, Kazuaki Ohashi, Ross Overbeek, Christian A. Ross, Morten Schioett, Teresa Shippy, Hideaki Takeuchi, Amy L. Toth, Judith H. Willis, Megan J. Wilson, Karl H.J. Gordon, Ivica Letunic, Kevin Hackett, Jane Peterson, Adam Felsenfeld, Mark Guyer, Michel Solignac, Richa Agarwala, Jean Marie Cornuet, Monique Monnerot, Florence Mougel, Justin T. Reese, Dominique Vautrin, Joseph J. Gillespie, Jamie J. Cannone, Robin R. Gutell, J. Spencer Johnston, Michael B. Eisen, Venky N. Iyer, Vivek Iyer, Peter Kosarev, Aaron J. Mackey, Victor Solovyev, Alexandre Souvorov, Katherine A. Aronstein, Katarina Bilikova, Yan Ping Chen, Andrew G. Clark, Laura I. Decanini, William M. Gelbart, Charles Hetru, Dan Hultmark, Jean Luc Imler, Haobo Jiang, Michael Kanost, Kiyoshi Kimura, Brian P. Lazzaro, Dawn L. Lopez, Jozef Simuth, Graham J. Thompson, Zhen Zou, Pieter De Jong, Erica Sodergren, Miklós Csurös, Aleksandar Milosavljevic, Kazutoyo Osoegawa, Stephen Richards, Chung Li Shu, Laurent Duret, Eran Elhaik, Dan Graur, Juan M. Anzola, Kathryn S. Campbell, Kevin L. Childs, Derek Collinge, Madeline A. Crosby, C. Michael Dickens, L. Sian Grametes, Christina M. Grozinger, Peter L. Jones, Mireia Jorda, Xu Ling, Beverly B. Matthews, Jonathan Miller, Craig Mizzen, Miguel A. Peinado, Jeffrey G. Reid, Susan M. Russo, Andrew J. Schroeder, Susan E. St. Pierre, Ying Wang, Pinglei Zhou, Huaiyang Jiang, Paul Kitts, Barbara Ruef, Anand Venkatraman, Lan Zhang, Gildardo Aquino-Perez, Charles W. Whitfield, Susanta K. Behura, Stewart H. Berlocher, Walter S. Sheppard, Deborah R. Smith, Andrew V. Suarez, Neil D. Tsutsui, Xuehong Wei, David Wheeler, Paul Havlak, Bingshan Li, Yue Liu, Angela Jovilet, Sandra Lee, Lynne V. Nazareth, Ling Ling Pu, Rachel Thorn, Viktor Stolc, Thomas Newman, Manoj Samanta, Waraporn A. Tongprasit, Charles Claudianos, May R. Berenbaum, Sunita Biswas, Dirk C. De Graaf, Rene Feyereisen, Reed M. Johnson, John G. Oakeshott, Hilary Ranson, Mary A. Schuler, Donna Muzny, Joseph Chacko, Clay Davis, Huyen Dinh, Rachel Gill, Judith Hernandez, Sandra Hines, Jennifer Hume, La Ronda Jackson, Christie Kovar, Lora Lewis, George Miner, Margaret Morgan, Ngoc Nguyen, Geoffrey Okwuonu, Heidi Paul, Jireh Santibanez, Glenford Savery, Amanda Svatek, Donna Villasana, Rita Wright

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1601 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here we report the genome sequence of the honeybee Apis mellifera, a key model for social behaviour and essential to global ecology through pollination. Compared with other sequenced insect genomes, the A. mellifera genome has high A+T and CpG contents, lacks major transposon families, evolves more slowly, and is more similar to vertebrates for circadian rhythm, RNA interference and DNA methylation genes, among others. Furthermore, A. mellifera has fewer genes for innate immunity, detoxification enzymes, cuticle-forming proteins and gustatory receptors, more genes for odorant receptors, and novel genes for nectar and pollen utilization, consistent with its ecology and social organization. Compared to Drosophila, genes in early developmental pathways differ in Apis, whereas similarities exist for functions that differ markedly, such as sex determination, brain function and behaviour. Population genetics suggests a novel African origin for the species A. mellifera and insights into whether Africanized bees spread throughout the New World via hybridization or displacement.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)931-949
Number of pages19
JournalNature
Volume443
Issue number7114
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Oct 2006
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Illinois Sociogenomics Initiative
Sundhed og Sygdom, Det Frie Forskningsråd
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
RSNZ Marsden Fund
National Science Foundation
USDA-NRI
NIH NLM
California Department of Fish and Game
Carlsbergfondet
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Texas Beekeepers Assoc.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Bee Weaver Apiaries, Inc.
Noble Research Institute
Novo Nordisk Fonden
Texas A and M University
National Institute of General Medical SciencesR37GM041247, R01GM058634, R01GM067317
National Human Genome Research InstituteU54HG003273
National Institute on Drug AbuseP30DA018310
Medical Research CouncilMC_U137761447
UK Research and Innovation78596
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokeR01NS043244, R01NS040296

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