My academic research project focuses on expanding the understanding of Bombus griseocollis population genetics using RADSeq and WGS, while extracting DNA with minimum tissue through a non-lethal collection method. Over the past year, I have extracted flight muscle from the thoraxes of bees and utilized PCR, gel electrophoresis, and Ugene software to analyze concentration and similarity.

This past summer, I adapted methods used in the study (Mola et al., 2021) that used tarsal clippings of bees for DNA instead of killing and freezing the entire bee. This resulted in a smaller yield of DNA to work with, but still produced a viable amount. This will allow me to potentially continue this project with an endangered species or population without it being lethal. I tested this method on bees currently in the lab to find the amount of tissue needed for quantifiable results, and then I plan to proceed to a new population. In addition, B. griseocollis has not had a published whole genome, and my project may eventually lead to the publication of this species’ whole genome sequence which can provide reference for other researchers.