2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Elucidating the coevolutionary relationship between sociality and social immunity: a study using facultatively social bees
| Project/Area Number |
21K06292
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Metropolitan University |
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Principal Investigator |
クロニン アダム 東京都立大学, 理学研究科, 准教授 (30620489)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | social immunity / social evolution / bees |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The first experimental work on immune testing of Ceratina okinawana was completed. The development of a new immune testing method was successful and allowed us to provide new insights into the relationship between social evolution and immune system biology through our comparison of social and solitary nests. This work is currently in review in Biology Letters. The second round of experiments on gene expression in Lasioglossum was a success after shifting to liquid nitrogen preservation. In addition, student Ha Nguyen went to Princeton University in the US for the sequencing stage of the project and completed sequencing at the Lewis Sigler Institute for Genomics. These data are currently being analysed. We additionally continued work on Ceratina Okinawana with some early sampling at the start of 2023 which will continue throughout the year with new Masters student Manolo Benitez.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
This study suffered delays in 2021 because of corona virus and loss of one set of samples because of an inappropriate preservation method. We repeated works in 2022 and this appears to have solved the issue so now data are available and are being analysed. Thus, while delayed slightly, we have managed to get things back on track and should be able to complete our aims during AY 2023.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Work will continue as planned in 2023, though we will also continue to analyse the newly available RNAseq data somewhat later than expected. Plans for 2023 will center on using the Ceratina okinawana model system to explore spatial and social influences on immune responsiveness in this bee. We will be sampling throughout the year in Okinawa and performing comparative immune tests on bees sampled at TMU.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Because of delays in 2021, the project schedule is behind and thus we were not able to complete all scheduled actions in 2022. These works have thus been shifted to 2023 along with the assigned funding.
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Research Products
(2 results)
