布莱恩丹弗斯

研究焦点

我的实验室研究侧重于系统发育，进化，人口遗传学和蜜蜂保护。蜜蜂包含全球超过20,000种以上的单味群。属于普通驯养的蜂蜜蜜蜂属于的属植物属于20,000种蜜蜂的8种。绝大多数蜜蜂是孤独，地面或茎嵌套，也不会产生蜂蜜。然而，它们是天然的极其重要的，在许多情况下，农业植物。通过形态和分子数据的组合，从物种水平到家庭水平的各级蜜蜂的系统发育。最近的蜂蜜BEE基因组出版使我们能够从大量核基因开发数据集。在实验室中正在进行的研究包括了解蜜蜂的根节点，早期多样化的蜜蜂，蜜蜂家族之间的关系以及在蜜蜂家庭内的更高层次之间的关系。这些研究对于开发蜜蜂的稳定分类至关重要，推断蜜蜂的历史生物地理，了解蜜蜂/植物共同历史，以及蜂社会演化的重建模式。我们目前正在专注于长舌蜜蜂家族Megachilidae（与Terry Griswold和Christophe Praz合作）。 Graduate student Jessica Litman is investigating the basal phylogeny of the Megachilidae, in particular the tribe Fideliini. Fideliines are distributed in arid regions of southern Africa, Morocco, and western South America. Graduate student Sophie Cardinal is investigating the phylogeny and evolution of the Apidae. Her results are providing new (and surprising) insights into the evolution of both cleptoparasitism and eusociality. Graduate student Margarita Lopez-Uribe is studying the population genetics of native bees in agricultural landscapes in the eastern US. Her studies are providing the first empirical data on gene flow and genetic diversity in native bee pollinators. Other projects include studies of the role of native bees in apple pollination (with graduate student Mia Park). It is becoming increasingly clear that declines in honey bee populations over the past 50 years means that increased work needs to be done on the role of native bees in agricultural settings. Apples are a crop in which native bees are most likely playing a very key role in pollination, but we need more information on how to manage and conserve these important native pollinators.