Simulation studies for the development of new sustainable breeding schemes for the honeybee

• Applicant: Dr. Manuel Du
• Subject Area: Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 462225818

Since breeding efforts for the Western honeybee are burgeoning all over Europe, there is a great demand for sustainable selection schemes. In animal breeding, stochastic simulation studies are a standard tool to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different breeding strategies. With the program BeeSim, developed in 2018, large-scale simulations which include the biological peculiarities of the honeybee are now available. So far, the program has been used to optimize existing breeding strategies; in this project it shall be expanded to develop new selection schemes for the honeybee. In particular, strategies relying on artificial insemination shall be explored and the concept of optimal contribution selection (OCS) shall be adapted to the honeybee.Traditionally, mating control in honeybees is practiced on isolated mating stations, where queens mate freely with multiple drones but geographic remoteness restricts the presence of drones to those from few preselected colonies. Recent studies in theoretical honeybee population genetics mostly consider isolated mating stations as the only mode of mating control. But with instrumental insemination, the passing of genes on the sires’ path can be steered much more precisely. The number of drones involved in a mating can be arranged exactly and their colonies of origin can be determined accurately. This has enormous, but so far poorly investigated, potential for the genetic progress and avoidance of inbreeding. In this project, a focus shall be set to evaluate the possibilities of single drone insemination, insemination with drones from a single colony, and insemination with mixed sperm from many colonies.For vertebrate livestock species, OCS has been designed to maximize the genetic gain at predefined inbreeding rates. This concept has great potential for use in endangered honeybee populations. In this project, the necessary theoretical adaptation to the honeybee’s biology shall be developed and the benefits of OCS (in combination with artificial insemination) shall subsequently be examined. To this purpose, the previously developed program BeeSim shall be expanded to reflect artificial insemination strategies and incorporate possibilities for OCS.These newly developed honeybee breeding strategies will reduce the gap in breeding theory between honeybees and other livestock species. They have great potential for practical application in European honeybee breeding projects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants