HONEY BEES AND THE APICULTURE INDUSTRY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OVER $15 BILLION IN ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND DELIVER INDISPENSABLE POLLINATION SERVICES BENEFITING OVER 90 DIFFERENT AGRICULTURAL CROPS. FOR OVER A DECADE, POLLINATORS HAVE BEEN UNDERGOING A DECLINE AND MANAGED HONEY BEES HAVE SUFFERED SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN ANNUAL MORTALITY, A PROBLEM THAT MUST BE MITIGATED TO ENSURE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEMS. SINCE THE DRAFT SEQUENCE OF THE WESTERN HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA) GENOME WAS FIRST REPORTED IN 2006, RESEARCHERS HAVE USED HONEY BEE GENOMIC RESOURCES TO STUDY THE MOLECULAR AND GENETIC BASES FOR HONEY BEE RESPONSE TO BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC STRESSORS. MORE RECENTLY NEW EFFICIENT DNA AND RNA SEQUENCING TECHNOLOGIES HAVE ARISEN THAT SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE MAPPING OF GENOMES AND GENES AND ENABLE THE IDENTIFICATION OF CHEMICAL MODIFICATIONS OF DNA AND RNA THAT REGULATE GENE EXPRESSION. A NEW HIGHLY CONTIGUOUS A. MELLIFERA GENOME ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN GENERATED USING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES. HOWEVER, NEW TECHNOLOGIES HAVE NOT YET BEEN APPLIED IN HONEY BEE GENE PREDICTION, SO HONEY BEE GENOMIC STUDIES ARE STILL LIMITED BY INCOMPLETE AND INCORRECT GENE INFORMATION. FURTHERMORE, HONEY BEE GENOMIC RESOURCES LACK REFERENCE INFORMATION ON RNA MODIFICATIONS, WHICH PLAY IMPORTANT ROLES IN GENE REGULATION. THE GOALS OF THIS PROJECT ARE TO CONSIDERABLY IMPROVE THE HONEY BEE GENE SET AND TO MAP CHEMICAL RNA MODIFICATIONS IN THE BRAINS OF HONEY BEE WORKERS USING NEW RNA SEQUENCING TECHNOLOGIES.