NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Integrating from genes to the environment to understand nutrient foraging behavior in honey bees

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。这项研究将从基因到环境的角度来理解蜜蜂的营养觅食。一个蜂群是由成千上万只蜜蜂组成的，它们一起工作来完成诸如觅食之类的任务。觅食受到几个相互作用因素的影响，包括环境（食物可用性）、群体（与食物供需相关的社会线索）、蜜蜂个体（食物偏好/觅食行为）以及驱动个体行为的潜在身体条件/基因。了解这些因素如何影响觅食和营养，可以为养蜂人提供支持蜂群营养的方法（例如，定制蜂群饮食）。营养不良是传粉媒介健康下降的一个关键压力因素，因此改善蜜蜂营养将支持作物授粉。更广泛地说，了解营养物质的觅食是如何在这些多层次系统中受到调节的，将加深我们对营养、动物行为（特别是觅食）和其他生物系统中社会群体进化的理解。为了扩大参与，该研究员将在该项目中指导两名来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的本科生。为了确定群体水平的社会线索和饲料环境对花粉觅食的影响，本研究将评估不同数量的育雏（发育中的幼虫）群体在夏季不同时间采集的花粉的蛋白质和脂肪含量以及分类特性。然后，为了确定蜂群如何调整个体蜜蜂的觅食行为以应对不断变化的环境觅食条件，研究员将监测觅食场所中不同营养胁迫条件下的个体觅食行为。收集实验中的觅食者，并对其转录组进行评估，以确定个体觅食偏好的基因，以及这些基因是否对环境条件有反应。为了确定个体生理和群体社会线索是如何相互作用影响个体基因表达和觅食偏好的，我们将在不同营养胁迫条件下对一群觅食工蜂进行脂肪酸合成抑制和观察。这项研究的结果将通过科学和利益相关者的文章、会议和外联传播。该研究员将获得分子技术和贝叶斯统计分析方面的职业培训。她还将加强她的教学/指导，扩大她的专业网络。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research will integrate from genes to the environment to understand nutrient foraging in honey bees. A honey bee colony is made up of thousands of bees that work together to complete tasks such as foraging for food. Foraging is influenced by several interacting factors, including the environment (food availability), colony (social cues related to food supply and demand), individual bees (food preferences/ foraging behaviors), and the underlying physical conditions/ genes driving individual behaviors. Understanding how each of these factors influences foraging and nutrition could provide beekeepers with ways to support colony nutrition (e.g., colony-tailored diets). Poor nutrition is a key stressor underlying declining pollinator health, so improving honey bee nutrition would support crop pollination. More broadly, understanding how foraging for nutrients is regulated in these multi-level systems will deepen our understanding of nutrition, animal behavior (particularly foraging), and the evolution of social groups in other biological systems. To broaden participation, the fellow will mentor two undergraduates from groups underrepresented in STEM during this project.To determine the effect of colony-level social cues and the forage environment on pollen foraging, this research will assess the protein and lipid content and taxonomic identity of pollen collected by colonies with different amounts of brood (developing larvae) and at different times during the summer. Then, to determine how colonies adjust foraging behavior of individual bees to respond to changing environmental foraging conditions, the fellow will monitor individual forager behavior under different nutrient stress conditions in foraging arenas. Foragers from this experiment will be collected and their transcriptome will be assessed to determine the genes underlying individual foraging preferences and if these genes are responsive to environmental conditions. To determine how individual physiology and colony social cues interact to influence individual gene expression and foraging preference, a cohort of foragers will be fatty-acid synthesis inhibited and observed in the foraging arenas under different nutrient stress conditions. Results from this research will be disseminated through scientific and stakeholder articles, conferences, and outreach. The fellow will gain career training in molecular techniques and Bayesian statistical analysis. She will also enhance her teaching/mentoring and broaden her professional network.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.