The Varroa destructor mite poses a serious threat to the future of bee populations worldwide. In our TAGEM project, for which I am the principal investigator, new primers specific to the genes Hym, AmNrx1, and CYP9Q3, which are associated with grooming behavior against the Varroa mite in honey bees, as well as the housekeeping gene GAPD2, were designed using the NCBI gene bank for RT-PCR studies. As a result of our study, it was determined that the breeding colonies obtained from the study supported within the scope of our Ministry's R&D projects showed an average increase of 496% in the Hym gene, 472% in the CYP9Q3 genes, and 382% in the Amnrx1 genes compared to the control colonies. The usability of the primers we introduced into the literature within the scope of the project has been demonstrated for the identification of honey bee lines resistant to the Varroa mite in breeding studies.
