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

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/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健康。通过快速和廉价地识别抗病虫害的蜜蜂群体，该工具具有为养蜂人和育种者节省成本和劳动力的潜力，因为它可能会最大限度地减少杀螨剂的使用，并促进可持续的预防和监测害虫种群的积累。减少使用杀螨剂和提高抗虫害和抗病能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，一种化合物在测定中使用的是最近与蚂蚁拆包，蜜蜂卫生的行为相媲美，这表明在控制蚂蚁和白蚁害虫species.This I-Corps项目的相关产品的发展潜力是基于信息素为基础的测定，预测和提高蜜蜂害虫和疾病的抵抗力，通过卫生行为的发展。蜂群行为是蜜蜂发现、解除和清除殖民地中不健康育雏的能力，是蜜蜂社会免疫的重要机制。这种新的测定利用不健康的蜜蜂自然产生的合成信息素来诱导卫生行为。在测定中，用信息素处理一小块育雏区域，并将其放回殖民地两小时。早期的田间试验表明，菌落对测定的卫生反应（计算为操作细胞的百分比）提供了殖民地天然抗病虫害的措施。具体而言，菌落的测定响应预测未来的寄生虫侵染水平、寄生虫去除能力和冬季存活率，其中高分菌落具有较少的螨，表现出更好的螨去除，并且更有可能在冬季存活。拟议的研究将采用行为，生物化学，育种和制造技术，以优化原型的功效，安全性和交付。 该项目将降低生产成本，评估原型在不同环境变量下的性能，并通过菌落检测反应为抗寄生虫性状的遗传性提供概念验证。该奖项反映了NSF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.