A Potential Role for Phenotypic Plasticity in Invasions and Declines of Social Insects

This work was supported by a Fulbright Science and Technology Scholarship to AT and National Geographic Species Recovery Grant Number NGS-57001R-19 to MA and AT.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Candidate genes for cooperation and aggression in the social wasp Polistes dominula

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Amy Geffre for assistance with field work and experimental setup, and for providing all kinds of support for FM wasp-related work at ISU. We would also like to thank Ali Berens and Erin McCall for valuable feedback on rearing wasp colonies at ISU. Many thanks also to Jeanne Serb for providing support during the molecular work at ISU and Emilie Snell-Rood for guidance on collecting wasp colonies at the University of Minnesota. This work was supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-15 IIF-625487).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cross-Cultural and Inter-Professional Knowledge Translation of Developmentally Supportive Care in an Indian NICU

Synopsis: A cross-cultural, and inter-professional NICU Team, including an American OT, used knowledge translation (KT) frameworks to apply current global evidence in developmentally supportive care in ways that were useful, cost effective, and meaningful to the families and staff in their tertiary care NICU setting in Gurgaon, India. The team used Pre & Post videotaping of routine care and procedures to measure the change in practice. Objectives 1. Increase NICU nurses’ use of DSC during routine care and procedures 2. Decrease the use of non-supportive behavior

Nourishment level affects caste-related gene expression in Polistes wasps

Background: Social insects exhibit striking phenotypic plasticity in the form of distinct reproductive (queen) and non-reproductive (worker) castes, which are typically driven by differences in the environment during early development. Nutritional environment and nourishment during development has been shown to be broadly associated with caste determination across social insect taxa such as bees, wasps, and termites. In primitively social insects such as Polistes paper wasps, caste remains flexible throughout adulthood, but there is evidence that nourishment inequalities can bias caste development with workers receiving limited nourishment compared to queens. Dominance and vibrational signaling are behaviors that have also been linked to caste differences in paper wasps, suggesting that a combination of nourishment and social factors may drive caste determination. To better understand the molecular basis of nutritional effects on caste determination, we used RNA-sequencing to investigate the gene expression changes in response to proteinaceous nourishment deprivation in Polistes metricus larvae. Results: We identified 285 nourishment-responsive transcripts, many of which are related to lipid metabolism and oxidation-reduction activity. Via comparisons to previously identified caste-related genes, we found that nourishment restriction only partially biased wasp gene expression patterns toward worker caste-like traits, which supports the notion that nourishment, in conjunction with social environment, is a determinant of developmental caste bias. In addition, we conducted cross-species comparisons of nourishment-responsive genes, and uncovered largely lineage-specific gene expression changes, suggesting few shared nourishment-responsive genes across taxa. Conclusion: Overall, the results from this study highlight the complex and multifactorial nature of environmental effects on the gene expression patterns underlying plastic phenotypes

Individual and Colony Level Foraging Decisions of Bumble Bees and Honey Bees in Relation to Balancing of Nutrient Needs

Foraging decisions of social animals occur in the context of social groups, and thus may be subject to considerations of not only an individual's nutritional state and nutrient input, but those of the social group in which they live. In eusocial insects, which live in colonies containing workers that forage for food that is mostly consumed by others, foraging decisions that reflect colony needs may also be considered at both the colony and individual level. If colony energy balance is perturbed, is the counteracting response occurring on the group level (a change in division of labor) or on the individual level (a change in individual foraging choices)? To address this, colony and individual level foraging behaviors were observed in two species of eusocial bees: the highly social honey bee Apis mellifera and the primitively eusocial bumble bee Bombus terrestris. After manipulations of protein (P) and carbohydrate (C) stores in colonies of both species, there were changes in multiple different behavioral responses including colony level (number of foragers, allocation to nectar and pollen foraging, nutrient mass foraged) and individual level (P and C concentration preference and loading during foraging). These results suggest both honey bee and bumble bee colonies balance nutrient needs through a combination of both colony level shifts in foraging allocation, as well as slight modulation of individual nutrient preferences. This study also uncovered colony level differences between the two bee species; honey bees balanced P intake while bumble bees balanced C intake. These patterns may reflect differences in life history traits such as perenniality and hoarding, traits that are developed in more highly social species. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering both group and individual level behavioral responses in foraging decisions in social animals

Transcriptomics of an extended phenotype: Parasite manipulation of wasp social behaviour shifts expression of caste-related genes

Parasites can manipulate host behaviour to increase their own transmission and fitness, but the genomic mechanisms by which parasites manipulate hosts are not well understood. We investigated the relationship between the social paper wasp, Polistes dominula, and its parasite, Xenos vesparum (Insecta: Strepsiptera) to understand the effects of an obligate endoparasitoid on its host’s brain transcriptome. Previous research suggests that X. vesparum shifts aspects of host social caste-related behaviour and physiology in ways that benefit the parasitoid. We hypothesized that X. vesparum-infested (stylopized) females would show a shift in caste-related brain gene expression. Specifically, we predicted stylopized females, who would normally be workers, would show gene expression patterns resembling pre-overwintering queens (gynes), reflecting gyne-like changes in behaviour. We used RNA-sequencing data to characterize patterns of brain gene expression in stylopized females, and compared these to those of unstylopized workers and gynes. In support of our hypothesis, we found that stylopized females, despite sharing numerous physiological and life history characteristics with members of the worker caste, show gyne-shifted brain expression patterns. These data suggest the parasitoid affects its host by exploiting phenotypic plasticity related to social caste, thus shifting naturally occurring social behaviour in a way that is beneficial to the parasitoid