Drone HealthThe worker bees' gut microbiome has been well established, but little is known relative to the queen and drone (male). I plan to investigate the impact of antibiotics on the drone gut microbiome and reproductive health. It is known in other organisms that antibiotics negatively effect spermatogenesis and stored sperm quality. We have shown that tetracycline is highly toxic to drone sperm in-vitro and confirmed that ingested tetracycline accumulates in honey bee queen reproductive organs (via mass spec).
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Microbiome PresenceHoney bees, like humans, get their gut microbiome from social interaction. Bees can be extracted from brood frames before they are able to move their mouth parts, making them essentially germ free. Microbes have been discovered in reproductive tissues of many animals including insects and have been associated with offspring success. I am particularly interested in the presence (or absence) of microbial communities affecting other organ systems in the honey bee. Additionally, I will investigate microbiomes never characterized in honey bees to date and the impact of tetracycline on those microbiomes.
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