On July 26th, 2023 B-GOOD coordinator Prof. Dr. Dirk de Graaf from Ghent University, Belgium, gave a lecture about marker-assisted selection in beekeeping at the polli.NET seminar, taking place at the Auditorium of Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. The event was also streamed online for those who did not have the opportunity to attend in person.

 

Poster of the polli.NET event

 

The lecture entitled "Paving the way to marker-assisted selection in beekeeping" reveals findings of marker-assisted selection in beekeeping, highlighting key results emerging from the B-GOOD project – the TaqMan genotyping assay. B-GOOD has developed a lab-test to detect each point mutation in the genome faster and cheaper in a population. TaqMan allows us to check whether the protective point mutations occur in a colony and what the impact is on the health of the colony. This will help beekeepers and bee breeders select the best honey bee stocks and reduce the number of treatments they need to help their bees survive varroa.

 

You can watch the full lecture here: