| Project/Area Number |
19K16205
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 45020:Evolutionary biology-related
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
VELASQUE Mariana 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, ゲノム・遺伝子制御システム科学ユニット, 客員研究員 (10834591)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2019)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
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| Keywords | social-immunity / behavioural-immunity / honey bee viruses / honey bee / behaviour / RNA transference / Social immunity / RNAi / Honey bees / Honey Bee Vaccine |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
I will investigate if RNAi mediated immunity is part of individual and social immunity, increasing the honey bee immune response to viruses and being transmitted to all hive members. If successful, my work can be used to develop efficient honey bee vaccines.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Last year, I began to implement all steps necessary for the development of the project "RNA matters: the role of transmissible RNAs for social and individual immunity". For instance, I obtained two honey bee hives and initiated pilot experiments to improve experimental outcome and data collection. On those preliminary studies, I collected behavioural information on honey bee behaviour as well as RNA expression (50 honey bees were sequenced). During this initial assessment, I was able to observe a group of honey bees that differ from the other hive mates by having a significantly low memory and cognition. After careful investigation, I was able to isolate a well-conserved gene group that seems to be responsible for this behaviour. A deeper analysis also revealed that this gene cluster is also present in humans, and have been previously associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although there isn't a clear connection between honey bees and humans in respect to this gene clusters, our results can provide a significant step on the understanding on how memory is shaped by gene expression, providing a unique insight into the evolution of cognition and memory in animals and humans. We expect to publish those results in a high impact journal. This work is currently being analysed and will be submitted for publication by August 2020.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Despite of the current coronavirus crisis, this project is running relatively smoothly and producing interesting results in different areas of knowledge. For instance, our preliminary study on honey bee social immunity suggested that there is a gene cluster related to memory and cognition in honey bees. Interestingly, the same gene cluster has been shown to be related to inherited ADHD in humans. I am analysis this data set while I conduce tests on social immunity (e.g. dsRNA feeding to mini hives) in honey bees.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We expected to promote our research by attending to international and national research conferences and by publishing our results in high impact journal. However, due to the current coronavirus crisis, all research conferences have been cancelled. To countermeasure this issue, we will promote our results in online platform (twitter, blogs) and with the publication.
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