The next seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology promises to be of great interest to bee scientists, beekeepers, and all those who want to learn more about honey bees.

An international leader in honey bee research--Juliana Rangel Posada--will speak on "Don't Compromise: Food Lipid Content Shapes Protein-Lipid Regulation in Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Nurses" at 4:10 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7 in 122 Briggs Hall. Her seminar also will be broadcast on Zoom. The Zoom link: 
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

Can't attend or Zoom in? Her seminar will be archived on the Entomology and Nematology seminar website at https://entomology.ucdavis.edu/seminars.

"Regulating nutrient intake is a fundamental and multidimensional challenge for all animals," Posada says in her abstract. "Typically, animals prioritize macronutrient intake, and we know much about protein-carbohydrate regulation. In contrast, we know relatively little about protein-lipid regulation, especially among palynivores like bees that feed on food (pollen) that has high, but variable, protein and lipid content."

"Using a Geometric Framework or nutrition experimental approach, we show that nurse honey bees (Apis melliera) maximized their protein-lipid intake on diets that had a 3:2 protein:lipid ratio and that it was lowest on highly lipid-based diets," she continued. "In choice experiments with nutritionally complementary diets, bees self-selected a protein-based diet. However, total consumption was suppressed when a lipid-biased food was present. Our collective results suggest bees actively regular the intake of both protein and lipid, but that lipid regulation is particularly strict. Our findings have implications for honey bee and palynivore ecology, and nutritional ecology more broadly."

Posada, a native of Colombia, South America, holds a bachelor's degree in ecology, behavior and evolution, cum laude (2004), from UC San Diego. She received her doctorate in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University in 2010, studying with major professor Tom Seeley, and then served as a National Science Foundation biology postdoctoral fellow at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. 

Posada joined the TAMU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty in January 2013. She is active in the Texas Beekeepers Association and has addressed dozens of beekeeping associations across the United States and internationally.

Posada and her research group at Texas A&M found that a widely used pesticide—the miticide amitraz—used to protect honey bees from mite infestation, has an effect on mating among the queens. (See Entomology Today, a publication of the Entomological Society of America)

She's also an outstanding teacher, the recipient of TAMU awards and the 2023 Excellence Achievement Award in Teaching, Southwestern Branch of the Entomological Society of America.

Nematologist Amanda Hodson, assistant professor, is coordinating the ENT seminars. The full list is here. For more information or for technical issues, contact Hodson at akhodson@ucdavis.edu.

Resources:

• Interview with a Social Insect Scientist, published in 2017 by Insectessociaux
• Biology of Mating, National Honey Show Lecture Series 2015, YouTube 
• Bee Happy: Maximizing Honey Bee Characteristics for Health Bees, Finding Genus Podcast
• Posada lab Facebook page:  facebook.com/TAMUhoneybeelab