Elucidating the coevolutionary relationship between sociality and social immunity: a study using facultatively social bees

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The first experimental work on immune testing of Ceratina okinawana was completed. The development of a new immune testing method was successful and allowed us to provide new insights into the relationship between social evolution and immune system biology through our comparison of social and solitary nests. This work is currently in review in Biology Letters. The second round of experiments on gene expression in Lasioglossum was a success after shifting to liquid nitrogen preservation. In addition, student Ha Nguyen went to Princeton University in the US for the sequencing stage of the project and completed sequencing at the Lewis Sigler Institute for Genomics. These data are currently being analysed. We additionally continued work on Ceratina Okinawana with some early sampling at the start of 2023 which will continue throughout the year with new Masters student Manolo Benitez.