Project description:Apis mellifera intermissa (Buttel-Reepen, 1906) is the native honeybee subspecies of Algeria. A.m.intermissa occurs in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, between the Atlas and the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts (Ruttner, 1988), in an area of more than 2500 km long. Intermissa indicates the position through this bee races between tropical Africa and European breeds (Peyvel, 1994). The settlement area of the Tellian extends from Tunisia to Morocco. Ruttner et al (1978) describes the pure Tellian. It is a black hair of his coat poverty brings out the black color. It is a small size, there are some times light illumination on the tergites. This bee is very aggressive, nervous, sick to take part, as swarms huge fall and even produced many brood and can build up to one hundred queen cells (Le Conte, 2002). A.m.intermissa is prone to swarming, shows an aggressive behaviour and an abundant use of propolis (Ruttner 1988). This study is part of the project funded by the USAID Grant No. TA-MOU-08-M29-075.
Project description:Apis mellifera syriaca is the native honeybee subspecies of Jordan and much of the Middle East. It expresses behavioral adaptations to a regional climate with very high temperatures, nectar dearth in summer, attacks of the Oriental wasp Vespa orientalis and in most cases it is resistant to varroa mites. The Thorax control sample of A. m. syriaca in this experiment was originally collected and stored since 2001 from Wadi Ben Hammad a remote valley in the southern region of Jordan. Using morphometric and Mitochondrial DNA markers it was proved that bees from this area had show higher similarity than other samples collected from the Middle East as represented by reference samples collected in 1952 by Brother Adam. The samples L1-L5 are collected from the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension breading apiary which was originally established for the conservation of Apis mellifera syriaca. Goal was to use the genetic information in the breeding for varroa resistant bees and to determine the successfulness of this conservation program. Project funded by USAID-MERC grant number: TA-MOU-09-M29-075.
Project description:The microsporidia Nosema ceranae are intracellular parasites that proliferate in the midgut epithelial cells of honey bees (Apis mellifera). To analyze the pathological effects of those microsporidia, we orally infected honey bee workers 7 days after their emergence. Bees were flash frozen 15 days after the infection. Then, the effects on the gut ventriculi were analyzed and compared to non-infected (control) bees.
Project description:This experiment examines gene expression profiles in the brains of adult honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) performing different behavioral tasks in the hive. The different behavioral groups examined were nurse, comb builder, guard, undertaker, and forager. The comb builder, guard, and undertaker behavioral groups perform their respective tasks over a relatively short time scale (typically 1 day), while nursing and foraging are longer duration (lasting > 1 week). The purpose of this study was to examine whether behaviors that persist over different time scales are associated with differences in the extent of gene expression changes in the brain.
Project description:We analyzed the changes in the brain tissue of Apis mellifera ligustica at the molecular level by sequencing after using fluvalinate. We found that the differentially expressed miRNAs (DEM) may be involved in hippocampal cell apoptosis and damage to memory functions. This result may be related to behaviors observed after the administration of this medication, such as a lack of homing at night and behavioral disturbances. Overall, our results provide new information about the molecular mechanisms and pathways of fluvalinate action in the brain tissue of Apis mellifera ligustica.
Project description:Explorative description of the gut microbiota of Apis mellifera ligustica. the study aims at describing the diverse fractions of the microbial community including bacteria, fungi, unicellular parasites