Transcriptional responses in eastern honeybees (Apis cerana) infected with mites, Varroa destructor

The Varroa destructor mite has become the greatest threat to Apis mellifera health worldwide, but rarely causes serious damage to its native host Apis cerana. Understanding the resistance mechanisms of eastern bees against Varroa mites will help researchers determine how to protect other species from this organism. The A. cerana genome has not been previously sequenced; hence, here we sequenced the A. cerana nurse workers transcriptome and monitored the differential gene expression of A. cerana bees challenged by V. destructor. Using de novo transcriptome assembly, we obtained 91,172 unigenes (transcripts) for A. cerana. Differences in gene expression levels between the unchallenged (Con) and challenged (Con2) samples were estimated, and a total of 36,691 transcripts showed a 2-fold difference (at least)