Functional, Genomic, and Evolutionary Analysis of Chemical Courtship Signals in Euglossine Bees

地球上大约80%的开花植物表现出对昆虫（主要是蜜蜂）授粉的适应性，因此大多数陆地生态系统依赖于蜜蜂授粉服务。和大多数昆虫一样，蜜蜂更多地依靠化学信号而不是其他感官方式来定位和识别配偶。了解蜜蜂如何使用化学物质相互交流，以及它们如何检测和编码植物衍生的挥发性化学物质，对于研究和保护有价值的授粉服务至关重要。eugine bees是热带美洲最重要的野生昆虫传粉者。雄性真花蜂不产生自己的信息素，而是从植物中收集和积累化学物质，然后在求偶时呈现给雌性。雄性收集的化学信号在密切相关的物种中是不同的，这表明它们在维持和形成新物种中起着关键作用。本项目研究了真碱蜂如何利用化学化合物来定位和识别基因相容的配偶，并旨在描述化学感觉检测和编码的遗传机制。梳理具有重要经济意义的蜜蜂物种的化学信号的进化和功能，将有助于我们理解并最终保护这些动物为社会提供的重要功能。大多数昆虫依靠化学信号（半化学物质）来获得关于潜在配偶的位置、身份和质量的精确信息。尽管符号化学物质在昆虫系统发育中的重要性，但控制信号化学和信号检测的机制仍然知之甚少。此外，考虑到地球上昆虫的巨大多样性和生态优势，昆虫的半化学物质是否介导生殖隔离、物种形成和谱系多样化仍未被探索。eugine蜜蜂不产生自己的信息素，而是从兰花、真菌和其他资源中收集和积累化合物。本项目旨在(1)描述真光蜂在整个系统发育过程中的符号化学表型多样性；(2)研究化学感觉性状的差异选择是否以及如何介导生殖隔离；(3)表征近缘种真光蜂触角中表达的嗅觉受体基因的基因组结构和功能多样性。该研究将整合多个学科的多种技术，包括行为生态学、化学生态学、群体遗传学、功能基因组学和神经行为学，以回答有关化学感觉通信的遗传基础、功能和进化的具体问题。

Approximately 80% of flowering plants on Earth exhibit adaptations for pollination by insects, mostly bees, and thus the majority of terrestrial ecosystems depend on bee pollination services. Like most insects, bees rely more on chemical signals than on any other sensory modality to locate and identify mates. Understanding how bees use chemicals to communicate with each other, and how they detect and encode plant-derived volatile chemicals, is critical for studying and protecting valuable pollination services. Euglossine bees include some of the most important wild insect pollinators of tropical America. Male euglossine bees do not produce their own pheromones, but instead gather and accumulate chemical compounds from plants to subsequently present to females during courtship display. Male-gathered chemical signals are divergent among closely related species, suggesting that they play a key role in the maintenance and formation of new species. This project investigates how euglossine bees use chemical compounds to locate and identify genetically compatible mates, and aims to characterize the genetic mechanisms of chemical sensory detection and encoding. Teasing apart the evolution and function of chemical signaling in economically important bee species will help us understand and ultimately preserve the vital functions these animals provide to society. Most insects rely on chemical signals (semiochemicals) to gain precise information on the location, identity, and quality of potential mates. Despite the importance of semiochemicals across the insect phylogeny, the mechanisms that control signal chemistry and signal detection remain poorly understood. Moreover, whether insect semiochemicals mediate reproductive isolation, speciation, and lineage diversification remains surprisingly unexplored given the vast diversity and ecological dominance of insects on Earth. Euglossine bees do not produce their own pheromones, but instead gather and accumulate compounds from orchid flowers, fungi, and other resources. This project aims to (1) describe the diversity of semiochemical phenotypes across the phylogeny of euglossine bees, (2) investigate whether and how divergent selection on chemosensory traits mediates reproductive isolation, and (3) characterize the genomic architecture and functional diversity of olfactory receptor genes expressed in antennae of related species of euglossine bees. The research will integrate diverse techniques from multiple disciplines, including behavioral ecology, chemical ecology, population genetics, functional genomics, and neuroethology to answer specific questions about the genetic basis, function, and evolution of chemosensory communication.