These data represent V. destructor genomic annotations to be used for evolutionary comparison with other arthropods. The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor has emerged as the primary pest of domestic honey bees (Apis mellifera). Here we present an initial survey of the V. destructor genome carried out to advance our understanding of Varroa biology and to identify new avenues for mite control. This sequence survey provides immediate resources for molecular and population-genetic analyses of Varroa-Apis interactions and defines the challenges ahead for a comprehensive Varroa genome project. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Data Dictionary - BLAST - annotated Varroa contigs. File Name: Data Dictionary genomic survey ectoparasitic mite varroa.csvResource Title: BLAST-annotated Varroa contigs. File Name: 1471-2164-11-602-s3.csvResource Description: Spreadsheet of Varroa destructor genomic contigs with significant similarity to the GenBank nr database by BLAST search. This is Additional File 3 from Cornman, et al. 2010.

We used BLASTX (for genomic contigs) and BLASTP (for ORFs of 90 residues or more) to identify genic sequences in the assembly. Sequences were initially searched against a database of five arthropod peptide predictions (Drosophila melanogaster, Anopheles gambiae, Pediculus humanus [a representative non-Dipteran insect], Daphnia pulex, and I. scapularis), with a minimum expectation of 10-8, and then secondarily against the eukaryotic Refseq database at the same expectation. In total, 13,031 contigs were identified with BLAST-detected similarity to database sequences.