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

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.