Each year honey bees contribute billions of dollars of value to the United States economy by pollinating food crops. During the past decade, North American honey bee populations have declined, primarily because of the death of colonies during winter. The cause of these losses is mysterious, but one possibility is that reduced fall populations make winter survival more challenging. It is difficult to assess threats to bee health because little is known about basic bee physiology. This project fills gaps in our knowledge of bee reproduction by using molecular methods to identify brain hormones that regulate the ovaries in queens, the only females in bee colonies who can lay fertilized eggs. The results will define the brain regulation of bee reproduction, which can in turn be used to understand how factors such as pesticides and disease disrupt egg production and lead to reduced bee populations. Because one of these signals is an insulin-like peptide, these studies will promote understanding of the role of insulin in insects. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, with primary data stored for a minimum of 10 years on secure Wake Forest University servers in standard formats (Excel, Photoshop). Two educational projects will be supported by this award. First, undergraduates will investigate the ability of the honey bee gut to repair diet-induced damage. Students will partner with local citizen-beekeepers to survey gut health in bee populations in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The second is development of an insect hormone laboratory exercise to be used by 200+ undergraduate biology students at Wake Forest University every semester. The curricular materials will be made available to all interested college-level instructors of biology through the national Association of Biology Laboratory Educators (ABLE). Insect-based exercises provide a safe, cost-effective tool for introducing students to concepts of hormone action.
