The Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium is an international collaborative group of genomics

Genomics

Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

 scientists, scientific organisations and universities who are trying to decipher the genome sequences of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). It was formed in 2001 by American scientists. In the US, the project is funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute

National Human Genome Research Institute

The National Human Genome Research Institute is a division of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland.NHGRI began as the National Center for Human Genome Research , which was established in 1989 to carry out the role of the NIH in the International Human Genome Project...

 (a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, the University of Illinois

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 Sociogenomics Initiative, and various beekeeper

Beekeeper

A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...

s association and the bee industry.

First scientific findings show that the honey bee genome may have evolved more slowly than the genomes of the fruit fly

Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...

 and malaria mosquito

Anopheles

Anopheles is a genus of mosquito. There are approximately 460 recognized species: while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria in humans in endemic areas...

. The bee genome contains versions of some important mammalian genes.

The complete genome of Apis mellifera has been sequenced and consists of 10,000 genes with approximately 236 million base pair

Base pair

In molecular biology and genetics, the linking between two nitrogenous bases on opposite complementary DNA or certain types of RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds is called a base pair...

s. The size of the genome is a tenth of the human genome

Human genome

The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...

.
The Western honey bee gene sequence showed 163 chemical receptors for smell but only 10 for taste. Besides the discovery of new genes for the use of pollen and nectar, researchers found that, in comparison with other insects, Apis mellifera has fewer genes for immunity, detoxification and the development of the cuticula
.
The population genetic analysis showed Africa as the origin and hypothesized that the spread into Europe happened in at least two independent waves.
Data from the scientific collaboration is made available on Beebase

Beebase

is an online bioinformatics database that displays data related to Apis mellifera, the European honey bee. It was developed in collaboration with the Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium....

 led by Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

.

BeeSpace led by the University of Illinois is an effort to complete a web navigable catalog of related information.