Dissertation Research: The Regulation of Social Foraging in the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

蜜蜂是世界上最重要的商业授粉者。这些非常成功的社会性昆虫对全球农业至关重要，并被广泛用于研究社会行为的进化。该项目将调查蜜蜂的社会觅食（食物收集）行为，这些行为可以增加我们对进化的理解，并且对全球经济至关重要。蜜蜂有年龄相关的劳动分工。年轻的蜜蜂在殖民地内执行任务，而年长的工蜂则离开巢穴去觅食。作为觅食者，蜜蜂经常偏向于花粉（蛋白质）或花蜜（碳水化合物）。蜜蜂开始觅食的年龄，以及对花蜜或花粉的偏好程度都受到卵黄蛋白原的影响，卵黄蛋白原是一种通常用于昆虫产卵的蛋白质。实验减少（击倒）卵黄蛋白原导致商业蜜蜂股票饲料在年轻的年龄和收集更多的花蜜。然而，目前还不清楚卵黄蛋白原如何影响蜜蜂的行为。该项目将重点关注与卵黄蛋白原和行为相关的激素网络，以更全面地了解蜜蜂觅食行为。我们将使用控制交配的研究股票（株），不同的行为和激素反应卵黄蛋白原敲低创建一个遗传图谱。该图谱将把激素水平的变化与蜜蜂基因组的区域联系起来，并确定将激素水平和卵黄蛋白原联系起来的候选基因。为了绘制图谱，我们将使用高通量测序技术。该项目将产生有关授粉行为相关基因的有价值的信息，并将在基本的实验室技术以及激素测量和基因组作图方面对本科生进行培训。该项目还将为一名博士生提供有价值的管理和指导培训，该博士生将担任联合首席研究员。

Honey bees are the most important commercial pollinators in the world. These tremendously successful social insects are essential to global agriculture and are used extensively to study the evolution of social behavior. This project will investigate the social foraging (food-collecting) behavior of honey bees, behavior that can add to our understanding of evolution and is central to the global economy. Honey bees have an age associated division of labor. Young bees perform tasks inside the colony, while older workers leave the nest to forage. As foragers, bees often bias their food-collecting toward pollen (protein) or nectar (carbohydrate). The age when bees begin to forage, and the extent of bias toward nectar or pollen are affected by vitellogenin, a protein that usually is used in insect egg-production. Experimental reduction (knockdown) of vitellogenin causes commercial honey bee stocks to forage at younger ages and to collect more nectar. However, it is not understood how vitellogenin affects honey bee behavior. This project will focus on a hormone network linked to vitellogenin and behavior to develop a more complete understanding of honey bee foraging behavior. We will use controlled matings between research stocks (strains) that vary in their behavioral and hormonal response to vitellogenin knockdown to create a genetic map. This map will link variation in hormone levels to regions of the honey bee genome, and identify candidate genes that link hormone levels and vitellogenin. To make the map, we will use high throughput sequencing technology. This project will generate valuable information on pollination behavior related genes and will train undergraduate students in basic laboratory techniques as well as in hormone measurements and genome mapping. The project will also provide valuable management and mentoring training for a PhD student, who will be the co-principal investigator.