BeeBase is a comprehensive sequence data source for the honey bee research community. It currently hosts all available genome sequences of Apis mellifera and three of its pathogens, and will soon incorporate genome sequence data from additional bee species. BeeBase is built on version 4.0 of the A. mellifera genome assembly, released by The Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center in March, 2006. Information from two previous versions of the assembly is also available in the Genome Browsers page, located in the TOOLS tab at the top of the page. The genome sequence is currently being upgraded with additional sequence coverage.

Uncovering the honey bee genome opened up the possibility to study the species from molecule to colony. Honey bee is a model species for social behavior and an essential species to global ecology as pollinators. One of the most relevant quests for the honey bee research community, around which many research foci revolve, deals with the evolution of their social lifestyle. How did such lifestyle come into being? Reports from the Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium were our first genome-wide insights into the social life of insects. An informatics resource like BeeBase opens the possibility to further explore and give answers to this and many other questions.

The links found previously on the front page have moved to the Tools tab.