Larval spongy moth transcriptomic response to ingestion of broad-versus narrow-spectrum insecticidal Chromobacterium species.

The PRAA4-1 strain of Chromobacterium subtsugae was the first insecticidal bacterium to be registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in crop protection applications since approval for Bacillus thuringiensis was granted in 1961.

Transcriptomic resources for Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister), a widespread invasive pest of Brassicales.

The bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister), is an emerging agricultural pest in the Americas, threatening agricultural production in the southwestern United States, Mexico and Chile, as well as in the Old World (including Africa, South Asia and, more recently, Mediterranean areas of Europe). Substantive transcriptomic sequence resources for this damaging species would be beneficial towards understanding its capacity for developing insecticide resistance, identifying viruses that may be present throughout its population and identifying genes differentially expressed across life stages that could be exploited for biomolecular pesticide formulations. This study establishes B.

Examining the Effects of Environment, Geography, and Elevation on Patterns of DNA Methylation Across Populations of Two Widespread Bumble Bee Species.

Understanding the myriad avenues through which spatial and environmental factors shape evolution is a major focus in biological research. From a molecular perspective, much work has been focused on genomic sequence variation; however, recently there has been increased interest in how epigenetic variation may be shaped by different variables across the landscape. DNA methylation has been of particular interest given that it is dynamic and can alter gene expression, potentially offering a path for a rapid response to environmental change.

It is buzziness time: rearing, mating, and overwintering Bombus vosnesenskii (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

Bombus vosnesenskii Radowszkowski, 1862 is one of three bumble bee species commercially available for pollination services in North America; however, little is documented about B. vosnesenskii colony life cycle or the establishment of ex situ rearing, mating, and overwintering practices. In this study, we documented nest success, colony size, and gyne production; recorded the duration of mating events; assessed overwintering survival of mated gynes; and evaluated second-generation nest success for colonies established from low- and high-elevation wild-caught B.

Whole genome analyses reveal weak signatures of population structure and environmentally associated local adaptation in an important North American pollinator, the bumble bee Bombus vosnesenskii.

Studies of species that experience environmental heterogeneity across their distributions have become an important tool for understanding mechanisms of adaptation and predicting responses to climate change. We examine population structure, demographic history and environmentally associated genomic variation in Bombus vosnesenskii, a common bumble bee in the western USA, using whole genome resequencing of populations distributed across a broad range of latitudes and elevations. We find that B.

Whole genome demographic models indicate divergent effective population size histories shape contemporary genetic diversity gradients in a montane bumble bee.

Understanding historical range shifts and population size variation provides an important context for interpreting contemporary genetic diversity. Methods to predict changes in species distributions and model changes in effective population size ( ) using whole genomes make it feasible to examine how temporal dynamics influence diversity across populations. We investigate variation and climate-associated range shifts to examine the origins of a previously observed latitudinal heterozygosity gradient in the bumble bee Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Latreille) in western North America.

Habitat Disturbance Linked with Host Microbiome Dispersion and Bd Dynamics in Temperate Amphibians.

Anthropogenic habitat disturbances can dramatically alter ecological community interactions, including host-pathogen dynamics. Recent work has highlighted the potential for habitat disturbances to alter host-associated microbial communities, but the associations between anthropogenic disturbance, host microbiomes, and pathogens are unresolved. Amphibian skin microbial communities are particularly responsive to factors like temperature, physiochemistry, pathogen infection, and environmental microbial reservoirs.

Genome Assemblies for Three North American Bumble Bee Species: , , and .

Bumble bees are ecologically and economically important insect pollinators. Three abundant and widespread species in western North America, , , and , have been the focus of substantial research relating to diverse aspects of bumble bee ecology and evolutionary biology. We present genome assemblies for each of the three species using hybrid assembly of Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequences.