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

面对气候变化，建立粮食安全是全球关注的重大问题，传粉者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者，因为许多物种正在严重衰退。在英国，提高授粉服务弹性的关键是寻找可供商业生产的替代物种。红色石蜂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。鲁法在英国各地随处可见，但种植者通常没有使用它的选择，因为它不是广泛存在的。目前，商业供应完全依赖于回收分发给果园农民和其他用户的人造蜂巢，以便为下一年提供种群。然而，这个系统规模很小，而且存在根本性的问题，因为它依赖于蜜蜂返回人工巢。由于气候条件、蜜蜂-植物的异步性或寄生，它也很容易受到高度可变的回报的影响。此外，这种做法正在持续耗尽野生种群。为了使大规模栽培的野生稻在商业上可行，我们必须了解如何在其生命周期内控制强制性休眠(滞育)的周期。滞育可持续数月之久，对于大规模养殖这种和许多其他重要昆虫物种具有重大的时间和成本影响。然而，滞育也有很大的用处，因为它允许我们在休眠状态下囤积昆虫。这延长了它们的“保质期”，并减少了与运输相关的损害。了解哪些过程调节滞育，以及如何打开和关闭滞育，将使我们能够控制蜜蜂可以储存多长时间，更重要的是，休眠的蜜蜂何时成年，即何时可以向在英国不同地区的作物在一年中的不同时间开花的农民提供O.rufa。几乎所有温带昆虫都进入滞育状态，因此O.rufa对于其他重要传粉者或生防物种的商业生产具有很大的价值。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公司在昆虫商业提供方面拥有超过25年的经验。我们的最终目标是开发一种培养方法，使英国各地的农民无论何时需要授粉，都可以获得健康的红花野生稻。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滞育的分子和生理过程，从而确定在休眠状态下增强冷藏以及根据需要控制同步滞育终止的方法。最后，我们还希望确保所提供的蜜蜂无论何时何地都能很好地适应特定的环境条件。总而言之，这个项目的主要目标是：1.建立一个培养系统，使其能够持续生产健康/无疾病的O.rufa。2.描述支持滞育的分子和生理过程，以确定目标：i)滞育终止，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，以适应不同地区的不同作物；以及ii)增强耐寒性，例如通过不同的驯化制度或饲料补充，以提高长期储存的存活率。3.比较英国南部、中部和北部地区鲁法野生稻种群的滞育特征和传粉性能，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.