Food security through insect dormancy management: using molecular physiology to optimise commercial rearing of a key UK pollinator.

在气候变化面前建立粮食安全是全球关注的焦点，传粉媒介将在实现这一目标方面发挥关键作用。农业不能仅仅依靠自然传粉媒介，因为许多物种正在严重减少。在英国，提高授粉服务弹性的关键是确定商业生产的替代物种。红石匠蜂（Osmia rufa）是一种比蜜蜂更有效的传粉者，适合为多种作物授粉，包括许多水果、蔬菜和油菜。O. rufa在英国各地都有发现，但种植者通常没有选择使用它，因为它不是广泛可用的。目前，商业供应完全依赖于回收分配给果园农民和其他用户的人工蜂巢，以便为下一年提供一个种群。然而，这个系统规模很小，并且存在根本性的问题，因为它依赖于蜜蜂返回人工巢穴。由于气候条件、蜂-植物不同步或寄生，它也容易受到高度可变的回报的影响。此外，这种做法正在不断地消耗野生种群。为了在商业上可行地大规模培养欧鲁法，我们必须了解如何在其生命周期内操纵强制休眠（滞育）期。滞育可以持续好几个月，这对大规模培养这种昆虫和许多其他重要昆虫物种具有重要的时间和成本影响。然而，滞育也有很大的用处，因为它允许我们储存处于休眠状态的昆虫。这延长了它们的“保质期”，并减少了与运输相关的损坏。了解什么过程调节滞育，以及如何打开和关闭它们，将使我们能够控制蜜蜂的储存时间，更重要的是，当休眠的蜜蜂成年时，也就是说，当英国不同地区的农民在一年中的不同时间有作物开花时，什么时候可以获得O. rufa。事实上，所有温带昆虫都进入滞育期，因此，作为其他重要传粉媒介或生物防治物种的商业生产相关的模型，O. rufa具有很大的价值。该项目的基础是伯明翰大学昆虫休眠专家和Biobest公司之间的合作伙伴关系，Biobest公司在昆虫商业供应方面拥有超过25年的经验。我们的最终目标是开发一种培养方法，使健康的O. rufa在英国各地需要授粉时都可以“现成”提供给农民。实现这一目标的关键是了解如何在实验室或温室环境中饲养蜜蜂并控制它们的生命周期。该项目将使用最先进的技术来研究支撑滞育的分子和生理过程，从而确定在休眠状态下加强冷藏的方法，以及根据需要控制同步滞育终止的方法。最后，我们还想确保所提供的蜜蜂无论何时何地被释放都能很好地适应特定的环境条件。总之，这个项目的主要目标是：1。建立一套能够连续生产健康/无病毛豆的培养系统。2. 描述支撑滞育的分子和生理过程，以确定目标：i)终止滞育，例如通过温度或化学处理，根据需要结束滞育，从而产生交错但同步的蜜蜂种群，以配合不同地区的不同作物；ii)增强耐寒性，例如通过不同的驯化制度或膳食补充剂来提高长期储存的存活率。3. 比较来自英国南部、中部和北部地区的O. rufa种群的滞育特征和传粉者的表现，以确定建立不同的区域“类型”是否具有商业价值。

Establishing food security in the face of climate change is of intense global interest, and pollinators will play a key role in achieving this objective. Agriculture cannot rely on natural pollinators alone as many species are in severe decline. Critical to enhancing pollination service resilience in the UK is identifying alternative species for commercial production. The red mason bee, Osmia rufa, is a more efficient pollinator than honey bees, and suitable for pollinating a wide range of crops, including many fruits, vegetables and oil seed rape. O. rufa is found throughout the UK, but growers have not typically had the option to use it, as it is not widely available. Currently, commercial provision is totally reliant on reclaiming artificial bee nests distributed to orchard farmers, and other users, in order to provide a population for the next year. However, this system is small scale and has fundamental problems as it is dependent on bees returning to artificial nests. It is also vulnerable to highly variable returns due to climatic conditions, bee-plant asynchrony or parasitism. In addition, this practise is continually depleting wild populations. For large scale culturing of O. rufa to be commercially viable it is essential we understand how to manipulate the period of obligatory dormancy (diapause) within its life cycle. Diapause can last for many months and has significant time and cost implications for the mass culturing of this, and many other, important insect species. Diapause also has great utility however, as it allows us to stockpile insects in a dormant state. This enhances their 'shelf life' as well as reducing shipping related damage. Understanding what processes regulate diapause, and how to switch them on and off, will allow us to control how long bees can be stored for, and more importantly when dormant bees emerge as adults, i.e. when O. rufa can be made available to farmers that have crops flowering at different times of year in different regions of the UK. Virtually all temperate insects enter diapause, so O. rufa has great value as a model relevant to the commercial production of other important pollinator or biocontrol species.The foundation of this project is the partnership between experts in insect dormancy at the University of Birmingham, and the company Biobest, which has over 25 years of experience in commercial provision of insects. Our ultimate goal is to develop a culturing method that will allow healthy O. rufa to be made available 'off the shelf' to farmers throughout the UK whenever required for pollination. Critical to achieving this goal is understanding how to rear the bees in a lab or greenhouse environment and control their life cycle. This project will use state-of-the-art techniques to investigate the molecular and physiological processes underpinning diapause, and so identify ways of enhancing cold storage within the dormant state, as well as controlling synchronous diapause termination on demand. Finally, we also want to ensure that the bees provided are well suited to the particular environmental conditions whenever and wherever they are released.In summary, the key objectives of this project are to: 1. Establish a culturing system that will allow continuous production of healthy/disease free O. rufa. 2. Characterise the molecular and physiological processes that underpin diapause to identify targets for: i) diapause termination, e.g. through temperature or chemical treatment, to end diapause on demand and so produce staggered, but synchronous bee populations to coincide with different crops in different regions; and ii) enhancing cold tolerance, e.g. through different acclimation regimes or dietary supplements to improve survival of long-term storage. 3. Compare diapause characteristics and pollinator performance of O. rufa populations from southern, central and northern UK sites, to determine if establishing different regional 'types' has commercial value.