NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The benefits of yeasts to bees and bees to yeasts

Moore, Megan Elizabeth, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. When two species engage in an interaction that benefits both partners, it is called a mutualism. Mutualisms are widespread in the natural world, and are vital in how ecosystems function. A well-studied example of mutualisms is pollination. Insect pollinators, such as bees, have recently been discovered to have additional mutualistic interactions with microbes that live in flower nectar. This project will investigate the costs, benefits and mechanisms of mutualistic interactions for bee pollinators and nectar yeast species that are native to the southeastern United States. The Fellow will investigate these questions across several biological scales: from the genetic and cellular level up to organism responses and ecological interactions. This research will broaden the scientific understanding of pollination ecology, and help to preserve interactions among flowering plants, insects and microbes that are vital to both natural and agricultural systems. The Fellow will recruit and train undergraduate students from groups that are underrepresented in science; the results of this research will also be shared with the public at local science outreach events. The Fellow will use a series of experiments to assess the costs and benefits of yeast-insect interactions, scaling from genomes to organismal response. The first experiment will investigate the genetic pathways that lead to volatile production in yeast, and determine which volatile compounds/mixtures serve as attractors to bee pollinators. Using these volatiles, the Fellow will assess whether the presence of attractive volatiles increases bee pollinator fitness indirectly via increased foraging efficiency, and/or directly by increased nutrition from ingesting yeast cells. To test whether yeast benefit from dispersal via pollinator vectors, the Fellow will test the efficacy of yeast to adhere to bee exoskeletons or survive passage through bee digestive systems, and establish growth in new nectar sources after transport. This experiment will also test the hypothesis that yeast undergo outcrossing and sexual reproduction in bee digestive tracts. During this project, the Fellow will receive training in chemical and genomic analyses, and develop technical skills in microbial biology and behavioral ecology. The Fellow will train undergraduate students in experimental design, data collection and statistical analyses during the course of the project. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.