Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The elaborate behaviours of social insects have fascinated biologists for centuries. A characteristic feature of such societies is division of labour, which is commonly achieved through the behavioural specialization of the worker caste. Honey bees provide a classic example: workers can transition between 'nurse' and 'forager' states characterized by brood-care and gathering pollen/nectar respectively. The Nurse/Forager transition involves changes in physiology and gene expression in the brain, and results in archetypical and reversible behavioural states. Attempts to understand the HOWs and WHYs of behavioural states in the bee have underscored the following fundamental questions: a) How do nature (genes) and nurture (the environment) affect behaviour? b) What is the relationship between behaviour and fitness in natural populations? c) How does behaviour contribute to adaptation? With the recent sequencing of the honey bee's genome, we are now on the cusp of deciphering the genetic mysteries that affect the bee's fascinating social behaviours. My research laboratory utilizes innovative genomic approaches to understand: 1) How genetic variation affects physiology and brain gene expression to regulate behaviour 2) How changes in worker behaviour affect colony fitness 3) How genes controlling behaviour evolve In addition to the advancement of knowledge, my research has several practical applications given both the honey bee's economic and ecological importance as a pollinator, and its use as a model for understanding the genetics of behaviour in other species (including our own). My research will help develop Canadian expertise on an emerging model organism and arguably the most important and fascinating insect known.