- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“I was thrilled to be invited to write this perspectives/review of my scientific career; it is a collection of 30 years of single-minded focus on one question,” said Page, who is renowned for his research on honey bee behavior and population genetics, particularly the evolution of complex social behavior, and for his work on the first genomic map of the honey bee.
"The editors contacted me to write a perspectives/review that focuses on my own work, a study in complex adaptation,” Page related. “This is the first time they have done a perspectives article like this. I was, of course, honored. More than half of the work was done at UC Davis.”
“Understanding the organization and evolution of social complexity is a major task because it requires building an understanding of mechanisms operating at different levels of biological organization from genes to social interactions,” Page wrote in his abstract. “I discuss here, a unique forward genetic approach spanning more than 30 years beginning with human-assisted colony-level selection for a single social trait, the amount of pollen honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) store. The goal was to understand a complex social trait from the social phenotype to genes responsible for observed trait variation.”
“The approach,” Page wrote, “combined the results of colony-level selection with detailed studies of individual behavior and physiology resulting in a mapped, integrated phenotypic architecture composed of correlative relationships between traits spanning anatomy, physiology, sensory response systems, and individual behavior that affect individual foraging decisions. Colony-level selection reverse engineered the architecture of an integrated phenotype of individuals resulting in changes in the social trait. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies combined with an exceptionally high recombination rate (60 kb/cM), and a phenotypic map, provided a genotype–phenotype map of high complexity demonstrating broad QTL pleiotropy, epistasis, and epistatic pleiotropy suggesting that gene pleiotropy or tight linkage of genes within QTL integrated the phenotype. Gene expression and knockdown of identified positional candidates revealed genes affecting foraging behavior and confirmed one pleiotropic gene, a tyramine receptor, as a target for colony-level selection that was under selection in two different tissues in two different life stages. The approach presented here has resulted in a comprehensive understanding of the structure and evolution of honey bee social organization.”
Page, who received his doctorate in entomology (1980) from UC Davis, joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 1989, and chaired the department from 1999-2004. In 2004, Arizona State University recruited him as founding director of its School of Life Sciences. His career advanced from dean of Life Sciences, to vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to university provost. Today he holds the titles of ASU provost emeritus, ASU Regents professor emeritus, and UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor, an award bestowed in 2019.
At UC Davis, Page worked closely with Harry H. Laidlaw Jr., (the father of honey bee genetics) for whom the university's bee facility is named.
For 24 years, from 1989 to 2015, Page maintained a UC Davis honey bee-breeding program, managed by bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Together they discovered a link between social behavior and maternal traits in bees.
Page has authored than 250 research papers, including five books: among them, The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution, published by Harvard University Press in 2013. His most recent book is The Art of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies, published by Oxford University Press 2020. (See news release on why bees are both artists and engineers.)
Page is a highly cited author on such topics as Africanized bees, genetics and evolution of social organization, sex determination, and division of labor in insect societies.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Niño, known internationally for her expertise on honey bee queen biology, chemical ecology, and genomics, joined the faculty in September of 2014 and maintains laboratories and offices in Briggs Hall and at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
Niño serves as the director of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), which she launched in 2016. The California Master Beekeeper Program is a continuous train-the-trainer effort. CAMBP's vision is to train beekeepers to effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UCCE staff.
Niño is also the faculty director of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the department's half-acre educational bee garden located next to the Laidlaw facility, which serves as the outdoor classroom for the Pollinator Education Program, lovingly known as PEP.
“My research interests are fluid and designed to address immediate needs of various agriculture stakeholder groups,” she writes on her website. “Projects encompass both basic and applied approaches to understanding and improving honey bee health and particularly honey bee queen health. Ongoing research projects include understanding queen mating and reproductive processes, discovery and evaluation of novel biopesticides for efficacy against varroa mites, and evaluating orchard management practices with a goal of improving honey bee health. Some of our more fun projects revolve around precision beekeeping and investigate the use of cutting edge technologies to make beekeeping more efficient and sustainable.”
Niño says she “greatly enjoys working with the community and especially with children. To ensure that our future researchers, agriculture leaders and innovators and future voters understand the importance of honey bees and other pollinators to our agroecosystems.”
“Our Pollinator Education Program at the Häagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven garden has been working with the Farms of Amador County to serve third grade students and we are planning on expanding our efforts in the near future and as the pandemic hopefully resolves.”
Niño received her bachelor's degree in animal science from Cornell University in 2003; her master's degree in entomology at North Carolina State University in 2006; and her doctorate at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 2012. She served as a postdoctoral fellow, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), as a member of the PSU Center for Pollinator Research.
Niño has a varied entomology background. While working on her bachelor's degree at Cornell, she was involved in studies on darkling beetle control in poultry houses, pan-trapped horse flies, and surveyed mosquitoes in New York state. While working toward her master's degree at North Carolina State University, she studied dung beetle nutrient cycling and its effect on grass growth, effects of methoprene (insect grown regular) on dung beetles in field and laboratory settings, and assisted in a workshop on forensic entomology.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum program is going virtual this year through a variety of live webinars and recorded presentations scheduled throughout the month of February. The science-based event traditionally takes place only on one day--the Saturday of Presidents' Weekend, when campus visitors can meet scientists and see and discuss their work.
This year, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans changed, noted spokesperson Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. The biodiversity event will feature 12 museums or collections going virtual:
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
For the schedule, access the live talks and demonstrations and pre-recorded talks and activities on the UC Davis Biodiversity program website.
Here's a handy list of the live talks and demonstrations, by dates:
Tuesday, Feb 9, 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens
Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's half-acre bee garden, the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, located on Bee Biology Road, will discuss what's blooming the garden, and what bees are active. Participants can then ask questions about their own bee gardens. This event will repeat on Tuesday, Feb. 9 and Tuesday, Feb. 23. A summary of the talk and the answers provided will be posted on Feb. 26. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2 to 3 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Social Behavior in Bees (especially orchid bees!)
UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Nick Saleh will discuss and answer questions about social behavior in bees especially orchid bees. He is interested in the behavior of all bees, but focuses his work on orchid bees, a group of tropical bees which form social groups of just two or three individuals. He also will discuss other social behaviors of bees. He holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Cornell University, and a doctorate from UC Davis, where he works with associate professor Santiago Ramirez.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Thursday, Feb 11, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Plants at the Botanical Conservatory
Ernesto Sandoval, director of the Botanical Conservatory, will give a virtual tour through photos and talk about the living plants in their green houses, from the cacao tree to the stinky corpse flower that blooms for just 24-36 hours.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to noon
Live Demonstration, Museum Bird Preparation
Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will demonstrate how to prepare a dead bird as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study birds both in the museum and in the wild. This includes a prerecorded presentation from 10 to 10:20, followed by a 20-minute pre-recorded presentation, and then a live question and answer session.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Live Talk: Phaff Yeast Collection Presentation
A 20-minute pre-recorded presentation on the Phaff Yeast Collection is set from 10 to 10:20, followed by a live question-and-answer session. Emeritus Professor Marc-André Lachance, recently retired from Western University in Ontario, Canada and a UC Davis alumnus, will discuss his global yeast collecting expeditions.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk: All About Ants
Rising entomologists Jill Oberski and Ziv Lieberman, doctoral students of major professor Phil Ward, will host a question-and-answer session "all about the world of ants," followed by a 15-minute talk by doctoral candidate Zach Griebenow about his ant evolution research. Griebenow will answer questions following his presentation. There also will be an ant talk on Feb. 20 from 11 a.m. to noon with their major professor Phil Ward. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, noon to 2 p.m.
Live Demonstration: Museum Mammal Preparation
Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will show how to prepare a dead mammal as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study mammals, both in the museum and in the wild.
Saturday, Feb. 13, 1 to 2 p.m
Live Talk: Raptor Diversity
Julie Cotton, education director of the California Raptor Center, located on Old Davis Road, will answer questions and discuss birds of prey, wildlife rehabilitation and the diversity of raptors.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 2 to 4 p.m.
Live Talks: Anthropology and Ask an Anthropologist
- Faculty and staff from the Department of Anthropology will present a series of talks. Questions are encouraged throughout the event, and there will also be a special time at the end to "Ask An Anthropologist."
- 2 to 2:15: "Animal Ecology in Precontact California"--Jelmer Eerkens
- 2:15 to 2:30: "Gorillas, Poop, and Nematodes--Neetha Iyer
- 2:30 to 2:45: "Reconstructing Human Evolution: A 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle--Mayowa Adegboyega,
- 2:45 to 3 p.m: "Paleolithic Stone Tool Technology at Nihewan Basin, P.R. China"--Corey Johnson
- 3 to 3:15 p.m. "Zoonotic Disease and Andean Camelid Domestication"--Kathy Morucci https://www.youtube.com/watch/Q4076iRb9tk
- 3:15 to 3:30: Netting Dovekies in NW Greenland--Erika Ebel
- 3:30 to 3:45, "Spirits of the Animals: Precontact and Contemporary Inuit Art"-- Christyann Darwent
- 3:45-4:00 p.m. Ask an Anthropologist
Monday, Feb. 15, noon to 1 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Heliconius Butterflies
UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Kathy Darragh will deliver her second live talk, answering questions about the Heliconius tropical butterflies. She earlier presented a talk on Feb. 7. Click here for the presentation in Spanish. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge (England). During her Ph.D. she studied in the lab of Chris Jiggins, investigating the pheromones of Heliconius butterflies, focusing on chemical ecology, behavior and genetics.
Thursday, Feb. 18, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: 'Murder Hornets' with Lynn Kimsey
Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, will discuss Giant Asian hornets (Vespa mandarinia), recently discovered in Canada and Washington State. The news media has nicknamed them "murder hornets."
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 20, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk, Questions and Answers: All About Ants, Part II
Entomology professor Phil Ward will host a fun and lively question-and-answer session, "All About Ants," based on his many years collecting and studying ants from around the world.
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 12:15 to 12:45
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens
This will be a live question-and-answer session with Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. She will discuss what's blooming in the Davis garden and what bees are active.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
For the pre-recorded presentations and activities, check this site.
To help support the Biodiversity Museum Day, contributions are being accepted through a month-long crowdfunding campaign program at https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Anecdoctal information recently published in sciencedirect.com
"These people have one thing in common: they develop a tolerance to bee sting," wrote lead author Wei Yang, an oncologist from China and two associates. The co-authors pointed out that "It reminds us the story of the discovery of cowpox and the eventual victory of humans over this disease (Bennett and Baxby, 1996)."
Page, not involved with the proposed research, is internationally known for his research on honey bee behavior and population genetics, particularly the evolution of complex social behavior. He is the author of the newly published book, The Art of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies.
The pre-program of interviews and questions will include an interview with retired UC Davis Medical Center nurse Carolyn Wyler of Sacramento, a passenger on the ill-fated Grand Princess cruise ship.
The main program, from 5 to 7 p.m., will begin with a welcoming address by UC Davis Chancellor Gary May. The panelists:
- Dr. Robert Gallo, who co-discovered that HIV causes AIDS, is the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine; co-founder and director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology; and co-founder of the Global Virus Network.
- Kate Broderick, who is leading an INOVIO research team in San Diego to develop a DNA vaccine for COVID-19,
- Dr. Dean Blumberg, professor and chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health
- Dr. Allison Brashear, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine., dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine.
Also interviewed will be Dr. Atul Malhotra, professor of Medicine, Pulmonology, Critical Care, UC San Diego Health, and Dr. Stuart H. Cohen, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, UC Davis School of Medicine.
Leal, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty and a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, has organized and moderated two other COVID-19 symposiums. The first symposium is online at https://bit.ly/2VurK3Z and the second at https://bit.ly/3b8TAau.
Leal may be reached at wsleal@ucdavis.edu for more information.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His talk, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the UC Davis Emeriti Association and the UC Davis Retirees' Association.
“Honey bees exhibit complex social behavior that rivals our own,” Page says. “It is fundamentally bound within a social contract much like ours that makes the basic social structure inescapable, a consequence of living together in family groups. Social structures evolve by natural selection operating on the final product, the colony as a reproductive unit. The structures themselves are reverse engineered.”
“I will show how selection on the economy of the colony shapes structures from nest and social architecture to gene networks.”
Page is a UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor, an honor awarded in January; and a Regents Professor Emeritus and University Provost Emeritus from Arizona State University, Tempe. He retired from UC Davis in May 2004 after chairing the Department of Entomology, now the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Born and reared in Bakersfield, Kern County, Rob received his bachelor's degree in entomology, with a minor in chemistry, from San Jose State University in 1976. After obtaining his doctorate from UC Davis in 1980, he served as assistant professor at The Ohio State University before joining the UC Davis entomology faculty in 1989 as an associate professor. He began working closely with Harry H. Laidlaw Jr., (the father of honey bee genetics) for whom the university's bee facility is named. Together they published many significant research papers.
Page chaired the Department of Entomology from 1999 to 2004, when Arizona State University recruited him to be the founding director of the School of Life Sciences of Arizona State University (ASU). His ASU career advanced to dean of Life Sciences; vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and university provost.
Page is known for his research on honey bee behavior and population genetics, particularly the evolution of complex social behavior. One of his most salient contributions to science was to construct the first genomic map of the honey bee, which sparked a variety of pioneering contributions not only to insect biology but to genetics at large.
At UC Davis, he maintained a honey bee-breeding program for 24 years, from 1989 to 2015, managed by bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. They discovered a link between social behavior and maternal traits in bees. Their work was featured in a cover story in the journal Nature. In all, Nature featured his work on four covers from work mostly done at UC Davis.
Page and his lab pioneered the use of modern techniques to study the genetic basis of social behavior evolution in honey bees and other social insects. He was the first to employ molecular markers to study polyandry and patterns of sperm use in honey bees. He provided the first quantitative demonstration of low genetic relatedness in a highly eusocial species.
His work has garnered a significant impact in the scientific community through his research on the evolutionary genetics and social behavior of honey bees. He was the first to demonstrate that a significant amount of observed behavioral variation among honey bee workers is due to genotypic variation. In the 1990s, he and his students and colleagues isolated, characterized and validated the complementary sex determination gene of the honey bee; considered the most important paper yet published about the genetics of Hymenoptera. The journal Cell featured their work on its cover. In subsequent studies, he and his team published further research into the regulation of honey bee foraging, defensive and alarm behavior.
Page has authored than 250 research papers, including five books: among them “The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution,” published by Harvard University Press in 2013. He is a highly cited author on such topics as Africanized bees, genetics and evolution of social organization, sex determination, and division of labor in insect societies. His resume shows more than 18,000 citations.
Highly honored by his peers, Page is a fellow of a number of organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, the Entomological Society of America, and organizations in Germany and Brazil. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, known at the Humboldt Prize, the highest honor given by the German government to foreign scientists. He received the 2018 Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Award from UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The UC Davis Retiree Center periodically holds noon educational seminars ("BrainFood Talks") featuring timely speakers. For more information, contact the UC Davis Retiree Center at (530) 752-5182 or retireecenter@ucdavis.edu.
