The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, in collaboration with the Ecological Forestry Applications Research Centre in Spain and North Dakota State University, recently conducted a comparison of the physiological and molecular processes involved in the summer and winter dormancy of Osmia lignaria, also known as blue orchard bee or orchard mason bee.
That analysis of gene expression is believed to be the first to compare the dormancy periods of the species in their natural habitat, and more importantly, it led to sequencing the first draft genome of the important pollinator for the almond industry.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, North America has 140 species of Osmia. Osmia lignaria, a solitary bee, follows a one-year lifecycle that includes two periods of dormancy. During summer, the bee develops to the prepupal stage -- the stage of larva after its final molt -- pauses, then finishes to developing to the adult stage before winter. Adult bees slow their metabolic activity while overwintering [second dormancy]. When spring arrives, adult bees emerge from dormancy and become highly active in pollination. Although that species does not produce honey, it is effective in pollinating almond trees due to cross-pollination among different varieties, which leads to higher crop yields.
“This species inhabits a wide latitudinal range in North America, with populations in the north having different developmental rates and lengths of dormancy periods than those in southern populations,” said Alex Torson, a computational biologist with USDA Agricultural Research Service Insect Genetics and Biochemistry Research in Fargo, North Dakota.