Project description:Background: Honey bee is a major insect used for pollination of a number of commercial crops worldwide. However, the number of managed honey bee colonies has recently declined in several countries, and a number of possible causes are proposed. Although the use of honey bees for pollination can be considered as disruption of the habitat, its effects on honey bees' physiology have never been addressed. In Japan, more than 100 thousands colonies are annually used for pollination, and intriguingly 80% of them are used in greenhouses. Recently, honey bee colonies have often collapsed when they are introduced into greenhouses. Thus, to suppress colony collapses and maintain the number of worker bees in the colonies are essential for successful long-term pollination in greenhouses and recycling honey bee colonies.
Project description:RNA-Sequencing performed on 177 honey bee whole-brains, divided into "soldier" and "forager" groups from Puerto Rican honey bee colonies.
Project description:Background: Honey bee is a major insect used for pollination of a number of commercial crops worldwide. However, the number of managed honey bee colonies has recently declined in several countries, and a number of possible causes are proposed. Although the use of honey bees for pollination can be considered as disruption of the habitat, its effects on honey bees' physiology have never been addressed. In Japan, more than 100 thousands colonies are annually used for pollination, and intriguingly 80% of them are used in greenhouses. Recently, honey bee colonies have often collapsed when they are introduced into greenhouses. Thus, to suppress colony collapses and maintain the number of worker bees in the colonies are essential for successful long-term pollination in greenhouses and recycling honey bee colonies. Honey bee hives were installed into strawberry and eggplant greenhouses, and then the gene expression profiles of the honey bees were examined at the different time periods. Total 16 samples with two replicates were analyzed.
Project description:We have looked across different honey bee colonies, multiple generations and multiple genetic backgrounds to identify protein expression patterns correlated with hygienic behaviour
Project description:Expression profiling of honey bee brains exposed to brood pheromone. Exposure was performed in colonies and young (5 days-old) and old bees (15 days-old) were analyzed .
Project description:Honey bee colonies in the United States have suffered from a higher than usual rate of die-off in the last few years with a complex set of interacting stresses playing a key role. With changing climate, an increase in the frequency of severe weather events, such as heat waves, is anticipated and understanding how these changes may contribute to stress in the bee is of crucial. Individual honey bees appear to have a high capacity to endure thermal stress. One reason for this high-level endurance is likely their robust HSR which contributes to thermotolerance at the cellular level. To elucidate other determinants of this resilience, we used thermal stress coupled with RNAseq and identified broad transcriptional remodeling of a number of key signaling pathways in the honey bee in response to tissue damage, including those pathways known to be involved in digestive tract regeneration in the fruit fly such as the Hippo and JAK-STAT pathways. We also observe cell death and shedding of epithelial cells, which likely leads to induction of this regenerative program. We found that thermal stress affects many of these pathways in other tissues, suggesting a shared program of damage response. In addition to allowing for important foundational characterization of damage response program in this key pollinating species, this study suggest that a robust regeneration program may also be a critical contributor to thermotolerance at the tissue level.
Project description:The mite Varroa destructor is currently the greatest threat to apiculture as it is causing a global decrease in honey bee colonies. However, it rarely causes serious damage to its native hosts, the eastern honey bees Apis cerana. To better understand the mechanism of resistance of A. cerana against the V. destructor mite, we profiled the metabolic changes that occur in the honey bee brain during V. destructor infestation. Brain samples were collected from infested and control honey bees and then measured using an untargeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based global metabolomics method, in which 7918 and 7462 ions in ESI+ and ESI- mode, respectively, were successfully identified. Multivariate statistical analyses were applied, and 64 dysregulated metabolites, including fatty acids, amino acids, carboxylic acid, and phospholipids, amongst others, were identified. Pathway analysis further revealed that linoleic acid metabolism; propanoate metabolism; and glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism were acutely perturbed. The data obtained in this study offer insight into the defense mechanisms of A. cerana against V. destructor mites and provide a better method for understanding the synergistic effects of parasitism on honey bee colonies.