Meeting Abstract

75.2  Monday, Jan. 6 08:15  The genetic components of extended life expectancy in chilled, post-diapause quiescent alfalfa feafcutting bees, Megachile rotundata TORSON, A.S.*; YOCUM, G.D.; RINEHART, J.P.; KEMP, W.P.; BOWSHER, J.H.; North Dakota State University; USDA-ARS; USDA-ARS; USDA-ARS; North Dakota State University Alex.S.Torson@ndsu.edu

The alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata) a solitary bee native to Eurasia, is the worlds most intensively managed solitary bee and has become the primary pollinator for alfalfa seed production. These bees, when commercially managed, are overwintered as diapausing prepupae under static thermal regime (STR) at 6°C until the spring when individuals are moved to 29°C and development resumes. Recent work has shown that individuals overwintered using a fluctuating thermal regime (FTR), consisting of a daily temperature increase to 20°C for one hour, show a dramatic increase in survival when compared to those overwintered in the current management practice. In this study individuals reared under FTR and STR protocols were collected as post-diapausing quiescent prepupae at two different time points and transcriptome profiling was performed using high-throughput mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq). An expression analysis identified differentially regulated transcripts between both treatments and time points. Transcript annotation and functional class analysis were used to identify differentially expressed transcripts. Transcripts belonging to oxidative stress and metabolic pathways predicted to protect against chill-injury were observed. This data provides first description of the genetic components that drive the differences in life expectancy between individuals reared under FTR and STR protocols.