U.S.-Mexico: Evolution of Recruitment Communication in Bees

这项美国-墨西哥奖将支持伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的Sydney Cameron博士和加州大学圣地亚哥分校的James Nieh博士对墨西哥塔帕丘拉市El Colegio de la Frontera Sur的Remy Vandame博士进行合作计划访问和研究。研究人员打算在美国的两个实验室和墨西哥的一个实验室之间开展国际合作，研究两种不同的群居蜜蜂——Meliponini（无刺蜜蜂）和Bombini （Bombus）——在招募交流中的声学和信息素信号。大黄蜂)。研究人员将带来互补的技能，以解决理解在高度社会化的蜜蜂中发现的复杂招募系统的本质和进化问题，以及它们如何从更简单的祖先系统进化而来。国外同行Vandame带来了墨西哥无刺蜜蜂觅食生态学的丰富知识，Nieh是无刺蜜蜂招募交流方面的专家，Cameron是社会蜜蜂分子系统发育方面的领军人物，还专门研究热带大黄蜂的行为。数据分析将在墨西哥和圣地亚哥的实验室之间分配，使用圣地亚哥超级计算机中心提供的30tb数据存储设备。这些研究人员将各自带一名研究生参加这项合作工作，他们在促进与来自墨西哥和拉丁美洲国家的科研人员和学生的交流与合作方面的经验将有助于该项目产生更广泛的影响。

0503834/0503468Cameron/NyeThis U.S.-Mexico award will support a collaborative planning visit and research by Dr. Sydney Cameron of the U. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and Dr. James Nieh of the U. of California-San Diego to Dr. Remy Vandame of the El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Tapachula, Mexico. The researchers intend to develop an international collaboration between two laboratories in the U.S. and one in Mexico to examine acoustical and pheromonal signals in recruitment communication in two different tribes of eusocial bees, Meliponini (stingless bees) and Bombini (Bombus. bumblebees). The investigators will bring complementary skills to address the problem of understanding the nature and evolution of the complex recruitment systems found in highly social bees, and how they may have evolved from simpler ancestral systems. The foreign counterpart Vandame brings a wealth of knowledge about the foraging ecology of stingless bees in Mexico, Nieh is an expert on stingless bee recruitment communication, and Cameron is a leader in molecular phylogenetics of social bees, and also specializes in the behavior of tropical bumblebees. Analysis of data will be distributed between the labs in Mexico and San Diego, using the 30 Terabyte data storage facility provided by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The researchers will each bring a graduate student to the collaborative effort and their experience in fostering communication and collaboration with scientific researchers and students from Mexico and Latin American countries will contribute to the broader impacts of the project.