RUC Student wins undergraduate research prize for presentation at national meeting

Binuk_Bumblebees_Elmwoodpark

RUC undergraduate student Binuk Samarasinghe, under the mentorship of Dr. Chet Bhatta, presented a poster entitled “Assessment of Nosema spp. parasitism in bumblebees of Roanoke River Valley in Virginia” to the virtual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in November. He was awarded 2nd Place President’s Prize in the undergraduate posters in the Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity section.

Left: Binuk collecting bees in Elmwood Park, Roanoke

Description of the project, written by mentor Dr. Bhatta:

Bumblebees are critical for food security and environmental sustainability as they contribute to pollination services and are directly link with both natural ecosystems and agricultural production systems. Among total 240 species of genus Bombus within the family Apidae, there are 46 species of bumblebees in North America alone. They possess several characteristics that cause them to be particularly effective pollinators. For example, unlike many other bee species, bumblebees are capable of a behavior known as ‘buzz pollination’, required to release pollen grains in some plants including tomatoes, peppers and several other vegetable crops. In addition, the large size of bumblebees allows them to forage in cooler conditions where other smaller-bodied insects are not active.

There are notable shifts in the bumblebee’s communities of North America with 20% of the species facing population decline. Causes of their decline are still unclear, but multiple declining species are correlated with Nosema bombi (a microsporidian pathogen) infection. Nosema (Microsporidia: Nosematidae) are a large group of obligate internal parasites that have been associated with the decline of bumblebee species and honey bees. In many cases, Nosema infection leads to reduced fitness of bumblebee colonies, and when combined with other environmental stressors including habitat degradation and pesticide exposure, the consequences may be more severe. N. bombi is the only species of this pathogen so far reported from North American bumblebees, although N. ceranae (an emerging pathogen of honeybees) infection to bumblebees is recently reported from countries like China and Argentina. It raised concerns as to whether this new species of Nosema involved in population decline of North American bumblebees.

This research is the first to examine Nosema infection in bumblebees of Roanoke and New River Valley of southern Virginia. Documenting the incidence of Nosema infection in wild bumblebees will provide a more informed understanding of the factors affecting their health and abundance. Efforts to provide resources for wild pollinators are increasing, and it will be equally important to monitor the prevalence of such parasites in these bumblebees’ populations in the preface of interspecific disease transmission originating with managed pollinators like honeybees.

 

Poster_Binuk_Chet

Binuk’s progress in the project, written by mentor, Dr. Bhatta:

This project was introduced to all students of BIOL 131 (Ecology and Adaptation) in fall 2019 via High Impact Teaching Practices (HIPS) Grant. Binuk picked up this project with a great deal of enthusiasm and wrote a research proposal which won the Biology Research Award (BRA) in Spring 2020. He also signed up for BIOL 491 (Research and Directed Study) under my supervision in spring 2020 and made a significant progress despite of COVID-19 pandemics. Binuk learned field collection and preservation techniques, taxonomic identification, and molecular tools (DNA extraction, PCR, DNA quantification, gel electrophoresis etc.) via this project. Binuk and I collected more than 250 specimens of Bumblebees past summer and this fall from different areas of Roanoke and New River Valley. Binuk enthusiastically presented this work in Roanoke campus seminar series, in main campus via winter card, and in Entomological Society of America annual meeting in November 2020. We are working further on this project now and aiming to publish in some entomological journal.

Dec 6, 2020
Karen Powers
540.831.5146
biology@radford.edu