Viral disease dynamics between honey and native bees in California.
Mike Boots, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
The Boots' lab in the Department of Integrative Biology studies disease ecology and evolution across multiple systems, with research ranging from theory to empirical to field biology. This project focuses on the honey bee – native bee – virus field system.
Each year managed honey bees in the USA face high overwintering losses, and many native species of bees are threatened with decline. In part, these declines are driven by parasites and pathogens. There is concern that the impacts of industrial agriculture on honey bee management are having indirect negative effects on native bees via shared viruses. The goal of this work is to understand the ecological disease dynamics of RNA virus infections between honey and native bees in California. This will be done by quantifying bee samples that have been collected in a time series both in the sub-alpine wildflower meadows of the Sierra and locally on ranches and gardens throughout Marin County. Viral prevalence, load and diversity estimates will be calculated to understand the directionality of disease transmission between species. This work will be used to inform ecologically minded disease management strategies to protect pollinator health.
As a research assistant, you will be helping a postdoctoral researcher in processing bee and plant specimens for museum curation and bee RNA for viral research.
Role: The hired student would assist in wet lab work which includes insect dissections, RNA extractions, cDNA synthesis, ddPCR/qPCR, and gel electrophoresis. Additionally, the student will gain experience with museum curation by helping process insect and botanical specimens for the Essig Museum and Jepson Herbaria.
This opportunity will allow the student to learn about the intersections of disease ecology, entomology, botany and virology. They will gain molecular biology skills to quantify insect-infecting RNA viruses.
Qualifications: The ideal candidate should have a general curiosity about insects and/or infectious diseases and a desire to gain wet-lab molecular skills. Desirable qualifications include good communication skills, being detail-oriented, independent, organized, and dependable. Preferences will be given towards biology majors (or related fields). Previous research experience is great but not required.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Nina Sokolov
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://bootslab.org
Biological & Health Sciences