New JSPS KAKENHI grant for Varroa research

The very nice cake ordered by the lab for our meeting

The worldwide spread of Varroa destructor has had a massive impact on beekeeping, and the health of honey bees. Varroa switched from the Eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) to the Western honey about a hundred years ago. However, we know very little about the evolutionary forces acting on Varroa on its new hosts, and how it actually spread throughout the world. Taking advantage of a genome we and our collaborators recently sequenced, and have already made available to the research community, we are collecting samples from around the world yo investigate these questions. The current grant will help with the massive sequencing effort this study requires.

You can read more about the sampling details and see a map here.

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