Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the honey BEE, apis mellifera, is…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the honey BEE, apis mellifera, is the principal pollinator for $215 billion worth of crops worldwide each year. Despite high demand for their pollination service, record losses have severely limited beekeepers' ability to supply sufficient colonies. A sustainable, long-term solution requires genetic improvements in growth; pest, pathogen, and disease resistance; and honey yield. Commercial honey BEE breeders have struggled to produce significant gains in all these areas over the past century largely due to limitations in time, but also economic cost and the logistic constraints of integrating multi-trait selection into commercial honey BEE breeding operations. Genomic selection - a proven technology in animal and plant breeding - significantly reduces the effect of these limitations while providing increased genetic gain. If adapted, genomic selectionhas profound potential to improve honey BEE breeding.what if commercial honey BEE breeders could survey their mating populations and identify individuals that would produce desirable outcomes prior to having to establish and maintain colonies? Genomic selection is at the tipping point where a seamless integration into existing commercial applications can be readily implemented offering significant short-term genetic information leading to sustainable long-term breeding solutions to major honey BEE threats.I willdevelop a high-throughput, rapid, and inexpensive method for stakeholders to incorporate genomic selection into their breeding programs.