Prof Eamonn Mallon, Dr E Rosato
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Overview
This project will quantify, for the first time, the genetic and epigenetic effects of long term neonicotinoid exposure on bumblebee populations. The social epigenetics lab at the University of Leicester has pioneered the study of bumblebee epigenetics. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been strongly implicated in the decline of bees affecting a number of important biological functions. This project will identify the selection in response to this pressure We have previously found epigenetic effects due to acute exposure of neonicotinoids. Recent work in evolutionary biology suggests that the heritable epigenetic system can respond rapidly to selectional pressures.
The role of insect pollinators in feeding a growing population and their recent declines is explicitly mentioned in NERC’s “The business of the environment” (page 5). This project fits into two NERC research areas; 1) Ecotoxicology - Diagnostics, tolerance and adaption in relation to natural and anthropogenic toxic substances and 2) Environmental genomics - Understanding the response of organisms to their natural environment at the level of the genome.
Neonicotinoids are effective insecticides used on many important crops, often as seed dressing. They are systemic, meaning they are absorbed by the plant and transported to all tissues where they remain active for many weeks. However, their tissue distribution and stability, which are important for their efficacy, determines their lack of species-specificity and their negative effects on the environment. In 2013 the European Union imposed a partial restriction on their use.
Laboratory and field studies have found effects on the behaviour, mortality and colony performance of bees exposed to neonicotinoids. The effects are so broad as to be likely caused by mechanisms additional to the primary toxicity, namely the block of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) resulting in major dysfunction of neuronal transmission. In mice, nicotine reduces DNA methylation in AChRs cells suggesting epigenetic consequences following repeated activation of nAChRs.
Methylation, the addition of a methyl group to a cytosine, has important effects on the biology of bees, including the control of reproductive status, task switching and memory. Methylation affects gene expression and alternative splicing in social insects. In a small preliminary BS-seq we found over eighty genes with differential methylation due to neonicotinoid exposure.
Funding Notes
This studentship is one of a number of fully funded studentships available to the best UK and EU candidates available as part of the NERC DTP CENTA consortium.
For more details of the CENTA consortium please see the CENTA website: www.centa.org.uk.
Applicants must meet requirements for both academic qualifications and residential eligibility: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/skills/postgrad/
Please direct informal enquiries to the project supervisor. If you wish to apply formally, please do so via: http://www2.le.ac.uk/study/research/funding/centa/how-to-apply-for-a-centa-project
References
Further reading:
• DNA Methylation in Social Insects: How Epigenetics Can Control Behavior and Longevity. Hua Yan, Roberto Bonasio, Daniel F. Simola, Jürgen Liebig, Shelley L. Berger, and Danny Reinberg. Annual Review of Entomology, Vol. 60: 435 -452 (Volume publication date January 2015)
• A restatement of recent advances in the natural science evidence base concerning neonicotinoid insecticides and insect pollinators. H. Charles J. Godfray, Tjeerd Blacquière, Linda M. Field, Rosemary S. Hails, Simon G. Potts, Nigel E. Raine, Adam J. Vanbergen, Angela R. McLean. Proc. R. Soc. B 2015 282 20151821; DOI:10.1098/rspb.2015.1821. Published 28 October 2015