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

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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.