Brief Bio: Brock Harpur is an Assistant Professor in the Entomology Department of Purdue. Brock arrived to Purdue after completing a National Science and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Donnelley Centre, University of Toronto. His work explores the evolution and genetics of honey bees. Brock completed his PhD on population genomics of honey bees at York University. Brock has been awarded the prestigious Julie Payette Research Scholarship from the National Science and Engineering Research Council, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Entomological Society of Canada’s President’s Prize, and was an Elia Research Scholar during his time at York University.

Genomics, evolution, immunity, sociality, polyandry

Would a gene drive work in Varroa destructor?

Co-authors on this work: Nicky Faber*, Yani Meibord, Gus MacFarlane, and Gregor Gorjanc
*Lead Author

The greatest threat to honey bee populations and the beekeeping industry globally is Varroa destructor (Varroa mites). Since their introduction into the United States in 1987 and their subsequent spread, Varroa mites have been responsible for the loss of millions of colonies and the near extinction of feral honey bee populations. Beekeepers have the option to treat their colonies with acaricides; however, mites are evolving resistance to some of these treatments and others harm honey bees. New targeted methods are needed to cope with Varroa mites. Genetic pest management tools such as CRISPR/Cas9-based gene drives may provide one option. Gene drives increase the probability of a specific allele being inherited in the offspring of gene drive carriers. By ‘driving’ alleles that reduce the fitness of homozygous females or males, it is possible to dramatically reduce the size of target populations. Such systems have been successfully modelled and tested in other arthropods. Here, we test a model of CRISPR/Cas9-based gene drives for Varroa mites to understand how realistic such a system would be given the unique biology of Varroa mites and predict which gene drive system and management practices would maximize the effectiveness of spreading within a colony and an apiary.