The contributions of Gro Amdam, who did her PhD with Omholt, are chronically underacknowledged. I'd invite everyone to spend a few minutes looking into her research career. Over the last 25 years, she's done basic research around vitellogenin that has laid the foundation for our current understanding of the the physiological mechanisms behind age polyethism, the impact of varroa mites on bee physiology, and trans-generational immune priming and vaccines.
Her research on vitellogenin has fundamentally changed the way we view honey bees, to the extent that we forget there was a time when we didn't know these things. To me, her foundational research is responsible for the shift from 1990s-style research to our more modern understandings of honey bees. Sure, Samuel Ramsey did a good job of translating his research to the beekeeper, but I'd argue it's Gro Amdam who laid the groundwork for his work.
Here are four examples of her research from my library. She has so many more papers than just this and has made far more contributions than I mention.
Transfer of Immunity from Mother to Offspring Is Mediated via Egg-Yolk Protein Vitellogenin
https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005015
Altered Physiology in Worker Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Infested with the Mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae): A Factor in Colony Loss During Overwintering?
https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/97.3.741
She found pupae parasitized by varroa result in adults with lower vitellogenin levels, which then compromise the bees in numerous ways, from precocious foraging to reduced longevity. It was this study that made clear beekeepers needed to treat early in the fall, before the winter bees were produced.
Social exploitation of vitellogenin
https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0333979100
This is the paper that discovered vitellogenin plays a central role in age polyethism and the social structure of honey bees.
Vitellogenin in Honey Bee Behavior and Lifespan
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-2099-2_2
The abstract summarizes her work better than I have:
Together with longtime collaborators, we have discovered roles of vitellogenin in worker behavioral traits such as nursing, foraging onset and foraging bias, and in survival traits such as oxidative stress resilience, cell-based immunity, and longevity. We have also identified a mutually inhibitory interaction between vitellogenin and the systemic endocrine factor juvenile hormone (JH), which is central to insect reproduction and stress response. This regulatory feedback loop has spurred hypotheses on how vitellogenin and JH together have become key life-history regulators in honey bees. A current research focus is on how this feedback loop is tied to nutrient-sensing insulin/insulin-like signaling that can govern expression of phenotypic plasticity. Here, we summarize this body of work in the context of new structural speculations that can lead to a modern understanding of vitellogenin function.
Her research contributions is the best example I know for why basic honey bee research should receive funding.
Tracey Smith
Alberta, Canada
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