ABSTRACT: Phylogenomics reveals within species diversification but incongruence with color phenotypes in widespread orchid bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini)
Project description:Phylogenomic interrogation revives an overlooked hypothesis for the early evolution of the bee family Apidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), with a focus on the subfamily Anthophorinae
Project description:Scouts and non-scouts (recruits) were collected by using a novelty-seekingM-^] assay. Experiment was conducted in a large outdoor screened enclosure, which enabled us to exert complete control over the location and number of food resources while at the same time studying naturalistic honey bee foraging behavior. Foragers were first trained to a color-marked training feederM-^] that contained unscented 50% sucrose solution (m/v); this initially was the only food source available to them. After 2-3 days of training, a novel feederM-^] was set up in another location in the enclosure, with different color markings and an odor cue. The training feeder was maintained, providing the bees with two possible foraging locations, a familiar and a novel. Scouts were identified as bees that switched foraging from the training feeder to the novel feeder; only bees seen foraging at the novel feeder two or more times and at least once at the training feeder were collected as scouts. Non-scouts (recruits) were collected at the end of the experiments; these were bees that continued to forage at the training feeder, and were never observed to switch to the novel feeder.
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:The Varroa mite represents the main threat of honey bees (Apis mellifera). Bees from some colonies can limit the proliferation of this parasite by detecting and removing parasitized brood, such behavior is defined as Varroa sensitive Hygiene (VSH). This is an important issue for selecting colonies that can survive Varroa outbreaks. We therefore study the molecular meachnisms underlying this behavior by comparing the antennae transcriptomic profile of VSH and non-VSH bees. Those profiles were further compared to to the profiles of nurses and forager profiles involved in brood care and food collection, respectively.
Project description:The drug phenobarbital induces cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450) gene expression in many animals, but no changes in P450 expression, or expression of any detoxification genes, were observed in worker honey bees fed on phenobarbital-candy relative to bees fed plain candy. Keywords: Expression profiling by array
