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ViewAttendees 13

SysEB

10-Minute Paper

10-min: SysEB, Social Insects

Circadian gene expression comparison across honey bee (Apis mellifera) long-lived bees and foragers

On-Demand
On-Demand
Honey bees are complex eusocial organisms found throughout the world. In eusocial societies, there’s a reproductive caste amongst the females: a queen and subordinates responsible for other activities to ensure the survival of the colony. Individual’s roles within the colony are required at different times of the day and in turn impacts the circadian rhythm of workers. All organisms have an internal rhythm, referred to as circadian rhythm that is responsible for controlling different processes such as sleep, metabolism, etc. Change in seasons and resources availability may also impact the roles of worker bees which may also have an effect on their activity patterns. In the winter, bees develop a unique phenotype and are characterized by longevity. By capping brood, this winter phenotype can be induced. In our study, we will be testing the overall gene expression of 45 day old control and broodless bees from brain tissue samples. We will also extract and test the expression of circadian clock genes in 45 day old control and broodless bee. We hypothesize that there will be variation of gene expression between 45 day old control and broodless bees. Our results show genetic variation between the control and broodless bees. In addition, clock gene expression suggests differences between the control and broodless groups but we are not sure how they vary.