Location: Crop Bioprotection Research
Project Number: 5010-22410-023-006-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 24, 2025
End Date: Sep 23, 2026
Objective:
Funds will enhance work being done in Objective 1 of the current project plan: Develop effective entomopathogenic fungi for implementation as augmentative biological controls to support integrated pest management systems.
Cooperator will continue to develop genomic resources to improve pollinator health and will enact new objectives to measure single-cell genomics in honey bees. Specific objectives include:
1) Identify key gene regulation traits important for pollinator behavior.
2) Use the latest single cell RNA and DNA sequencing techniques to better understand the biology of honey bees.
3) Use CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromatic Repeats) to study honey bee biology and health during "prenatal" development.
4) Provide research and institutional support for pollinator research in the midwestern agricultural ecosystem.
Approach:
There are 4,000 bee species in the United States, many of interest to agriculture and all of interest to biodiversity. This extension with additional funds will expand genetic research efforts for the primary agricultural pollinator, the honey bee, offering insights for other bees and beneficial insects. Techniques include CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and single cell or single nuclei RNAseq and DNAseq.