Date of Award

Fall 2018

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Committee Chair

Shahid Karim

Committee Chair School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Committee Member 2

Alex Flynt

Committee Member 2 School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Committee Member 3

Yanlin Guo

Committee Member 3 School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Abstract

The effect of pesticides on Apis mellifera mortality as well as their effect on the transcriptional regulation of antioxidant genes was the aim of this study. Unlike previous studies, the work here shows the combined effects of pesticides imidacloprid and coumaphos on worker bees at levels likely encountered by workers using both toxological and molecular analysis. Bee brood were collected from hives and incubated until hatching. The 1 day old bees were then segregated and subjected to varying concentrations of coumaphos and imidacloprid both independently and in concert. Workers from each treatment group were removed and stored in RNA-later until they were used for molecular analysis. The 10 antioxidant genes monitored here comprised of both primary and secondary antioxidants. Four of the secondary antioxidants used were seleno-like genes found in the genome. These showed differential expression throughout the bee’s development as well in the presence of pesticides.

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