Elina Lastro Nino
Elina Lastro Nino
Biology Seminar
Date & Time
Thu, Apr 11
11:00 AM
Location
Mateer Hall G-01
Contact
Beth Snyder
330-263-2379
Email
Elina Lastro Nino, Postdoctoral Scholar from Pennsylvania State University will present...
"Multi-level analysis of reproductive changes in honey bee queens."
Elina received her BS in Animal Science from Cornell University in 2003, her MS in Entomology from North Carolina State University in 2006 and her PhD in Entomology from Penn State University in 2012.
Her research deals with characterizing factors (e.g., seminal proteins, seminal volume) that are affecting honey bee queen post-mating changes on behavioral, physiological, and molecular level. She is particularly interested in understanding the underlying molecular pathways regulating these changes and whether these changes remain even after the queen commences oviposition. Queen produces pheromones from many glands (e.g., mandibular gland) and these pheromones play an integral part in regulating social organization of the colony. She also studies how queen insemination volume modulates pheromone production and how this in turn regulates worker behavior (e.g., retinue response, supersedure attempts) and physiology (e.g., juvenile hormone levels, pheromone production), which could influence colony dynamics. Being that mating is a stressful process, her future research will address how queen mating modulates queen immunocompetence which could have an effect on queen reproductive success, and therefore the wellbeing of the entire colony.