[Bee] Genetics 101

[Alvearium]

BIBBA sell 'Elements of Bee Genetics' by Mesquida. I bought Rinderer's text mentioned by Gavin, from Amazon. It is good. Can be heavy going in parts but you can dip in on interesting aspects and do not need to read it from cover to cover. For example you can look at 'Behavioural Genetics' in ch 6 and then move to ch 16 for practical information on 'Breeding Accomplishments with Honey Bees'. There is 'Bee Sex Essentials' by Lawrence John Connor with simpler but interesting sections on colony genetics and 'Breeding Super Bees' by Steve Taber which has a very practical bent. All great stuff only wish I could remember half of what I read though! Gavin will be a shining light to lead the way with his forthcoming lecture.
Alvearium

[Neils]

OK, well you said just ask and I know this is definitely one that I could just look up on Wikipedia but I'm a forum whore and I like talking about stuff.

There was a mention in, I think, the CCD discussion about the Virus cited in the study and it was suggested that it was an RNA virus.

I get at as a basic concept DNA, I've heard of RNA but I've no idea what the difference between the two is generally, let alone when it comes to viruses. Is this worth a post or should I just RTFM?

[gavin]

Hi Nellie

DNA has a backbone of a chain of nucleic acid bases (deoxyribose ones), and there are two strands of them which are paired (A-T and G-C) and therefore can self-replicate when they unzip.

RNA has a single chain of ribose nucleic acid bases.

The DNA sequence can copy itself, and it can be 'translated' to an RNA sequence. In most organisms the information is coded in the DNA sequence and the RNA performs several functions but an important one is to be the template to make proteins from the information in the DNA.

RNA can also be copied back to DNA. Retroviruses do this as part of their replication strategy. However most RNA viruses have a strategy that involves making an antisense RNA strand which is copied back to a sense strand.

Most of the bee viruses we've heard about are RNA viruses. IIV/AIV is a double-stranded DNA virus.

How did I do?!

Gavin

[Neils]

Enough to make me think I need to go right back to basics, I've been working my way through http://www.genetichealth.com/G101_Ge...ystified.shtml as what seems a reasonable basis to get a slightly better basic understanding of the fundamentals and I think I'll work up from there.