LAUSR

Abstract To control Varroa destructor, an ectoparasitic mite, a honey bee line possessing high hygienic behavior (HHB) against this mite has been bred in South Korea. However, a method that can diagnose and assess the HHB line from control (the low hygienic behavior, LHB) line has not been reported yet. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers through whole-genome sequencing of worker bees from HHB line of A. mellifera caucasica and LHB line of A. m. carnica (Hymenoptera: Apidae). A total of 319,445,977 sequence reads were mapped to the known A. mellifera reference genome (average coverage of 87.46%). In 2,316,128 and 3,266,756 SNPs from HHB and LHB line, respectively, 20 SNPs that showed homozygosity in each line were selected and eight SNPs were used to diagnose the HHB line either by typical PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism or allele-specific PCR. Six of remaining SNPs were of different sizes, enabling relatively easy differentiation of these two honey bee lines on typical agarose gel. Another remaining six SNPs had different sequences, including SNP sites. These SNP markers can be used to diagnose and assess V. destructor-specific HHB line of honey bees.