Transcriptional response of honey bee to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are vital to the global economy; they are however being decimated by a number of environmental threats. One of such threat is a parasitic fungus, Nosema, which infests the honeybee mid-gut, deprives it from most of its nutrients. honeybee’s natural diet based on pollen and nectar is rich in nutrients crucial for bee health but standard commercial pollen substitutes are also used. The nutritional value of these artificial diets compared to pollen, especially when bees are challenged with a disease, remains unclear. Thus the goal of this project is to address this question at the molecular level by comparing the whole transcriptional profile of pollen, MegaBee, or BeePro feeding to a poor diet (sugar only) feeding in healthy and in Nosema-infected bees.