2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Using machine vision to understand causes and consequences of collective behavior in a honey bee society（国際共同研究強化）
| Project/Area Number |
16KK0175
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
ミケェエヴ アレクサンダー 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 生態・進化学ユニット, 准教授 (90601162)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016 – 2018
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| Keywords | animal behavior / social insects / machine learning |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Our goal for this project was to use a combination of RNA interference (RNAi) for gene expression manipulation of bee societies.
This project has encountered substantial delays, and we have been tackling it piece-wise, working on computer vision and RNAi separately, with the goal of integrating them in FY2018. As a result, we have already submitted two studies (one accepted) on each of these lines of investigation. Having developed both technologies, we are carrying out experiments in Japan and in Australia in FY2018 to capitalize on these advances.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
Unfortunately, one of the ANU collaborators died unexpectedly at a very young age. Despite a significant delay, I am setting up necessary experiments. In the meanwhile, we have been conducting experiments in Japan and Australia to complement this loss. The events at ANU have brought the research program there to a virtual halt. As a result, I had to do most of the experiments by myself, greatly slowing progress. We have made substantial progress in both RNAi and the computational methodology, and will continue experiments into FY2018.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We have initiated a long-term collaboration with the Maleszka lab at ANU, and are currently reproducing their classic study on the role of DNA methylation in caste specification in honey bees (Kucharski et al, 2008, Science). We will add the state of the art transcriptional data analysis used in our lab at OIST to experimental manipulations used by Maleszka lab. This approach will be further extended to studies of behavior that we will undertake in the Australian summer of 2018/2019.
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