ICE Network Fargo

Microclimate Temperatures Impact Nesting Preference in Megachile rotundata (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Elisabeth Wilson, Claire Murphy, Joseph Rinehart, George Yocum, Julia Bowsher Abstract The temperature of the nest influences fitness in cavity-nesting bees. Females may choose nest cavities that mitigate their offspring’s exposure to stressful temperatures. This study aims to understand how cavity temperature impacts the nesting preference of the solitary bee Megachile rotundata (Fabricius) under field…

Cryopreservation of seminal vesicle derived spermatozoa from Bombus impatiens and Apis mellifera – Implications for artificial insemination of bumble bees

Campion, Claire; Rajamohan, Arun; Rinehart, Joseph P. Abstract This study evaluates the efficacy of a cryopreservation protocol for spermatozoa derived from the accessory testis of male Bombus impatiens. It is also the first report of successful cryopreservation of bumble bee spermatozoa. The spermatozoa viability was compared with the similarly treated honey bee spermatozoa derived from…

Anoxia hormesis improves performance and longevity at the expense of fitness in a classic life history trade-off.

De La Torre, Alyssa; López-Martínez, Giancarlo Abstract Hormesis occurs as a result of biphasic dose relationship resulting in stimulatory responses at low doses and inhibitory ones at high doses. In this framework, environmental factors are often studied to understand how this exposure benefits the animal. In the current study we used anoxia, the total absence…

Effects of Temperature and Wildflower Strips on Survival and Macronutrient Stores of the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) Under Extended Cold Storage

Mia G Park, Casey M Delphia, Cassandra Prince, George D Yocum, Joseph P Rinehart, Kevin M O’Neill, Laura A Burkle, Julia H Bowsher, Kendra J Greenlee Abstract Megachile rotundata (F.) is an important pollinator of alfalfa in the United States. Enhancing landscapes with wildflowers is a primary strategy for conserving pollinators and may improve the…

Sperm can’t take the heat: Short-term temperature exposures compromise fertility of male bumble bees (Bombus impatiens)

Campion, Claire; Rajamohan, Arun; Dillon, Michael E. Abstract Bumble bee (genus Bombus) populations are increasingly under threat from habitat fragmentation, pesticides, pathogens, and climate change. Climate change is likely a prime driver of bumble bee declines but the mechanisms by which changing climates alter local abundance, leading to shifts in geographic range are unclear. Heat…

Adaptation to the abiotic environment in insects: the influence of variability on ecophysiology and evolutionary genomics

Michael E Dillon, Jeffrey D Lozier Abstract Advances in tools to gather environmental, phenotypic, and molecular data have accelerated our ability to detect abiotic drivers of variation across the genome-to-phenome spectrum in model and non-model insects. However, differences in the spatial and temporal resolution of these data sets may create gaps in our understanding of…

Fluctuating thermal regimes prevent chill injury but do not change patterns of oxidative stress in the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata

Alex S Torson, George D Yocum, Joseph P Rinehart, Sean A Nash, Julia H Bowsher Abstract In insects, prolonged exposure to unseasonably low temperatures can lead to detrimental physiological effects known as chill injury. Changes to active and passive transport across epithelia during chilling likely drive the collapse of ion gradients, metabolic imbalance and potentially…

RASMA: a reverse search algorithm for mining maximal frequent subgraphs

Salem, Saeed; Alokshiya, Mohammed; Hasan, Mohammad Al Published March 16, 2021 Abstract Background Given a collection of coexpression networks over a set of genes, identifying subnetworks that appear frequently is an important research problem known as mining frequent subgraphs. Maximal frequent subgraphs are a representative set of frequent subgraphs; A frequent subgraph is maximal if…

Immediate Transcriptional Response to a Temperature Pulse under a Fluctuating Thermal Regime

Dacotah Melicher, Alex S Torson, Tanner J Anderson, George D Yocum, Joseph P Rinehart, Julia H Bowsher Published August, 2019 Abstract The response of ectotherms to temperature stress is complex, non-linear, and is influenced by life stage and previous thermal exposure. Mortality is higher under constant low temperatures than under a fluctuating thermal regime (FTR) that maintains the…