Until recently, the honey bee, Apis mellifera was the only domesticated animal species without a germplasm repository. This was addressed by the development of cryopreservation protocols for honey bee spermatozoa, which is currently being utilized to secure critically important germplasm from several sources in a nascent collection at the National Animal Germplasm Program in Ft. Collins, Colorado. However, the functionality of this collection suffers from the fact that it does not include female derived germplasm. To address this deficiency, we have developed an embryonic cryopreservation protocol for this critically important species. Our initial efforts to adapt dipteran embryonic vitrification techniques to honey bees proved unfruitful due to the embryos’ unique permeability characteristics and their differential rate of development versus consumption of internal lipid resources. Once these issues were addressed, we were able to design a protocol resulting in 34.5 ± 9.1% viability after permeabilization and cryoprotectant loading, and 21.1 ± 15.4% after vitrification in liquid nitrogen. These data suggest that cryopreservation of honey bee embryos can be a viable option as the honey bee germplasm repository continues to grow.
