I-Corps: Pheromone-based tool for determining honey bee colony pest and disease resistance

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种基于信息素的工具，通过选择性育种和管理技术改善蜜蜂的健康。通过快速和廉价地识别抗虫害和抗病的蜂群，该工具为养蜂人和育种者节省了成本和劳动力，因为它可能最大限度地减少杀虫剂的使用，并促进可持续地预防和监测害虫种群的增加。减少杀虫剂的使用和提高病虫害的抵抗力可能会使蜜蜂更健康，并改善作物和自然生态系统的授粉。此外，该实验中使用的一种化合物最近与蚂蚁开箱有关，蚂蚁开箱是一种类似于蜜蜂卫生的行为，这表明开发相关产品用于控制蚂蚁和白蚁害虫物种的潜力。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种基于信息素的测定方法，通过卫生行为来预测和提高蜜蜂的病虫害抗性。卫生行为是蜜蜂发现、揭盖和清除不健康幼虫的能力，是蜜蜂社会免疫的重要机制。这种新颖的实验利用不健康蜜蜂自然产生的合成信息素来诱导卫生行为。在实验中，一小块区域的雏鸟被信息素处理，并返回到菌落两个小时。早期的田间试验表明，一个菌落对检测的卫生反应（以被操作细胞的百分比计算）提供了一个菌落天然抗虫害和抗病能力的衡量标准。具体来说，一个群体的分析反应预测了未来的寄生虫感染水平，寄生虫清除能力和冬季存活率，其中得分高的群体有更少的螨虫，表现出更好的螨虫清除能力，更有可能在冬季生存。拟议的研究将采用行为学、生物化学、育种和制造技术来优化原型的有效性、安全性和交付。该项目将降低生产成本，评估各种环境变量的原型性能，并为通过菌落测定反应确定的抗寄生虫性状的遗传性提供概念证明。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a pheromone-based tool for improving honey bee health through selective breeding and management techniques. By enabling rapid and inexpensive identification of pest- and disease-resistant honey bee colonies, this tool has cost and labor-saving potential for beekeepers and breeders, as it is likely to minimize miticide use, and facilitate sustainable prevention and monitoring of pest population buildup. Reduced use of miticides and improved pest and disease resistance may result in healthier honey bees and improved crop and natural ecosystem pollination. In addition, one compound used in the assay was recently associated with ant unpacking, a behavior comparable to honey bee hygiene, suggesting the potential for the development of related products for use in the control of ant and termite pest species.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a pheromone-based assay to predict and improve honey bee pest and disease resistance through hygienic behavior. Hygienic behavior is the ability of honey bees to detect, uncap, and remove unhealthy brood from the colony, and is an important mechanism of honey bee social immunity. This novel assay utilizes synthetic pheromones naturally produced by unhealthy honey bees to induce hygienic behavior. In the assay, a small area of brood is treated with pheromones and returned to the colony for two hours. Early field trials suggest that a colony’s hygienic response to the assay (calculated as a percent of cells manipulated) provides a measure of the colony’s natural pest and disease resistance. Specifically, a colony’s assay response predicts future parasite infestation levels, parasite removal ability, and winter survival, where high scoring colonies have fewer mites, demonstrate better mite removal, and are more likely to survive winter. The proposed research will employ behavioral, biochemical, breeding, and manufacturing techniques to optimize prototype efficacy, safety, and delivery. The project will reduce production costs, assess prototype performance across environmental variables, and provide a proof-of-concept for heritability of parasite-resistance traits identified by colony assay response.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.