Life Sciences Commons^™

Draft Genome Assembly And Population Genetics Of An Agricultural Pollinator, The Solitary Alkali Bee (Halictidae: Nomia Melanderi), Karen M. Kapheim, Hailin Pan, Cai Li, Charles Blatti Ill, Brock A. Harpur, Panagiotis Ioannidis, Beryl M. Jones, Clement F. Kent, Livio Ruzzante, Laura Sloofman, Eckart Stolle, Robert M. Waterhouse, Amro Zayed, Guojie Zhang, William T. Wcislo

Biology Faculty Publications

Alkali bees (Nomia melanderi) are solitary relatives of the halictine bees, which have become an important model for the evolution of social behavior, but for which few solitary comparisons exist. These ground-nesting bees defend their developing offspring against pathogens and predators, and thus exhibit some of the key traits that preceded insect sociality. Alkali bees are also efficient native pollinators of alfalfa seed, which is a crop of major economic value in the United States. We sequenced, assembled, and annotated a high-quality draft genome of 299.6 Mbp for this species. Repetitive content makes up more than one-third of …