Improving the tool kit for honey bee (Apis melifera) functional genetics: improved understanding of the RNAi response

Agricultural systems around the world depend on honey bees for pollination services. Recent, unexplained declines in managed honey bee populations have highlighted the importance of greater knowledge about honey bee physiology, immunity and basic biology. The development of a technique to manipulate specific genes has enabled incredible progress in recent years in the field of honey bee functional genetics. RNA interference (RNAi) is a method that uses introduced double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to silence gen es, reducing expression in a sequence-specific manner. The use of RNAi in adult honey bees was pioneered by Dr. Gro Amdam at the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB). Despite the advances in understanding honey bee biology facilitated by RNAi techno logy, the RNAi response in bees is relatively poorly understood, and increased knowledge of the mechanism will enable improvements in RNAi technology, better experimental design, and speed the progress of functional genetics research in honey bees. Togeth er with Dr, Amdam, I Dr. Kate Ihle (United States: Smithsonian Institution and Arizona State University) propose to address this challenge by 1) testing what bee cell types are accessible to RNAi, 2) establishing a standardize RNAi protocol for honey bee tissue culture, and 3) determining the efficiency of uptake and knockdown of long dsRNA and siRNA probes. This project will develop my research collaboration with the Amdam lab at UMB and establish a new interface between UMB and the Smithsonian Instituti on for the mutual benefit of both organizations.