THE honeybee is the latest creature to have its genome completely sequenced, and the third insect after the fruit fly and the mosquito. The first draft of the genome sequence was placed in public databases last week, and researchers are hot on the trail of genes linked to traits such as the bee’s waggle-dance “language” and venom production.
Apis mellifera’s genome is a tenth the size of ours, and it took only a year to produce the draft, at a cost of $8 million. The work was done by a team led by Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of…
