Team Asian Hornet team is Buzzing with excitement at winning the Dangerous Zone vote! We’d like to thank all of the fabulous children and teachers who took part and asked so many excellent questions! Your questions made us scratch our heads at times, and as a result we learned more about our organism! We’d also like to the thank the other “Dangerous Zone” competitors, especially the Leathery Sea Squirt – you were always such a hit in the chats, and Daubenton’s Bat – sorry we kept accusing you of eating us!  We hope your genomes get sequenced soon – we’d love to rub shoulders with you on GenBank!

Being a social insect, we couldn’t possibly have done this alone – we work as a team! In fact, we’re a team of scientists from the UK (UCL, University of Bristol and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), Italy (University of Pisa, University of Florence and Crea) and France (University of La Rochelle and INRA). Our division of labour means we bring expertise in wasp biology and ecology, invasive species biology and management, genomics and behaviour.

After the celebrations, Team Asian Hornet will be getting down to business, planning for making the most of the genome when it is ready. The genome will help us gain insights into the genetic basis of the adaptations, develop genetic markers for monitoring genetic diversity, and it also opens up opportunities in the future for using genetic methods to control these invasive populations. We can’t wait to get started! Thank you to all who voted, and thank you to the Wellcome Trust and Sanger Centre for providing the opportunity.

The Asian Hornet Genome Team – full details of the team and project can be found here: http://www.sumnerlab.co.uk/im-a-scientist-get-me-out-of-here/

University College London, UK (Dr Seirian Sumner, Dr Michael Bentley, Dr Alessandro Cini)
University of Bristol, UK (Dr Daisy Taylor)
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK (Dr Helen Roy, Dr Marc Botham)
University of Florence, Italy (Prof Rita Cervo, Dr Federico Cappa)
CREA-API, Italy (Prof Laura Bortolotti)
Univ. Of Pisa, Italy (Dr Antonio Felicioli)
Univ. La Rochelle, France (Dr Karine Monceau)
INRA, Bordeaux, France (Dr Denis Thiery, Dr Olivier Bonnard, Dr Juliette Poidatz