The bees' needs: an eco-evo-devo approach to pollinator health and social evolution

蜜蜂的需求：传粉媒介健康和社会进化的生态进化方法

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06341
• 负责人: Rehan, Sandra
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=745863
• 关键词: bees; needs; eco; evo; devo

Bees are important not only for their unmatched pollination services but also for their wide range of social behaviours. In my lab, we study the interplay between maternal care and nutritional ecology. Our research focuses on the small carpenter bees as a model for the study of social evolution and pollinator health. We have developed a wide range of tools, techniques, and share open access data of broad relevance to both evolutionary ecologists and conservation biologists. The first part of our research focuses on maternal care and offspring development. We study the small carpenter bees because they are a solitary bee with many social tendencies, including prolonged maternal care, grooming and guarding of offspring, extensive mother-adult offspring interaction, and mutual tolerance of adults in the nest. Further, they are locally abundant and easily tractable in both field and lab settings. We are studying the role of maternal care and mother-offspring interaction on whether offspring develop into tolerant or aggressive individuals. Our studies involve observation colonies which allow us to track mother-offspring interaction and to experimentally modify their nutrition and social environment. We also use genomic methods to identify maternally collected pollen, socially transmitted microorganisms, as well as their effects on offspring gene expression to understand the role of maternal care on offspring nutrition and development. The second part of our research focuses on nutritional ecology and pollinator health. Not only do mothers play a critical role in offspring production and survival, but arguably environmental factors such as food availability, disease, and nesting habit have an overwhelming influence. Our studies demonstrate that bees are sensitive to floral availability not only in terms of the quantity, but also the quality of resources available. Further, there is growing appreciation that core nutrition is complemented by a core microbiome. Bees that are malnourished and combating pathogens have reduced survival and rarely reproduce. We aim to determine the core nutritional requirements and healthy microbiome of bees to inform landscape restoration and conservation practices. With data on nutritional requirements and their availability in the landscape we can better protect pollinator populations. Our research is significant to all Canadians, because our system is unique in permitting experimental assessments of all components that result in a healthy bee. On a practical side, our research also informs pollinator plantings, conservation status recommendations, and bee habitat across a wide range of farm, forest, and urban land use practices. We broadly disseminate information through public lectures, educational websites, school visits, and guided nature walks. The skills that students learn in our lab are directly translated into careers in teaching, research, environmental monitoring, industry, and science communication.

蜜蜂不仅对他们无与伦比的授粉服务也很重要，而且对于他们广泛的社会行为而言也很重要。在我的实验室中，我们研究了孕产妇护理与营养生态学之间的相互作用。我们的研究集中于小型木匠蜜蜂，作为研究社会进化和传粉媒介健康的模型。我们已经开发了广泛的工具，技术，并与进化生态学家和保护生物学家共享广泛相关的开放访问数据。我们研究的第一部分侧重于孕产妇护理和后代发展。我们研究小型木匠蜜蜂，因为它们是一只孤独的蜜蜂，具有许多社会趋势，包括长时间的孕产妇护理，后代的修饰和保护，广泛的母亲后代相互作用以及巢中成年人的相互耐受性。此外，它们在本地和实验室设置中都很易于处理。我们正在研究后代是否发展为宽容还是侵略性的个体，孕产妇护理和母亲的互动的作用。我们的研究涉及观察菌落，使我们能够跟踪母亲的互动，并实验修改其营养和社交环境。我们还使用基因组方法来鉴定母体收集的花粉，社会传播的微生物及其对后代基因表达的影响，以了解孕产妇护理对后代营养和发育的作用。 我们研究的第二部分侧重于营养生态学和传粉媒介健康。母亲不仅在后代生产和生存中起着至关重要的作用，而且可以说诸如食品可用性，疾病和筑巢习惯等环境因素具有压倒性的影响。我们的研究表明，蜜蜂不仅对数量，而且对可用资源的质量都敏感。此外，人们越来越感谢核心营养是由核心微生物组补充的。营养不良和对抗病原体的蜜蜂降低了存活率，很少繁殖。我们旨在确定蜜蜂的核心营养需求和健康的微生物组，以告知景观恢复和保护实践。有了有关营养要求及其在景观中的可用性的数据，我们可以更好地保护授粉媒介人群。 我们的研究对所有加拿大人都很重要，因为我们的系统在允许对所有导致健康蜜蜂的组成部分进行实验评估方面是独一无二的。在实用方面，我们的研究还为授粉媒介种植，保护状况建议以及跨广泛的农场，森林和城市土地利用实践提供了信息。我们通过公开讲座，教育网站，学校访问和指导性自然之旅广泛传播信息。学生在我们的实验室中学习的技能直接转化为教学，研究，环境监测，行业和科学传播方面的职业。