Projects

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  CRISPR dynamics in Bombella strains isolated from longitudinal sampling of honey bee larvae

  Core Project

  CRISPR-Cas immunity tracks host-microbe interactions. Researchers aim to study CRISPR dynamics in natural populations and their impact on symbiont evolution using Bombella from bee larvae.

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  Defining the functional diversity and evolution of phage-associated endosymbiont toxins

  Core Project

  Tandy Warnow and Irene Newton study how phage-associated toxins from Wolbachia influence host biology and coevolution, exploring functional diversity and evolutionary impacts on endosymbiont toxins.

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  Effects of diet and social context on honey bee queen microbiome and its mobilome

  Core Project

  Researchers study how stressors on honey bees affect mobile genetic elements and their bacterial hosts using queen monitoring cages and metagenomic sequencing techniques.

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  Fungal contributions to GEMS systems

  Core Project

  May Berenbaum and Adam Dolezal study the role of Aspergillus in the health of the honey bee colony, with the goal of extending this to understand the role of Aspergillus species in other GEMS systems.

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  Influence of the mobilome on the honey bee microbiome via longitudinal metagenomics and reverse ecology

  Core Project

  Researchers study how ecological and evolutionary factors shape the honey bee gut microbiome, focusing on mobile gene interactions through a longitudinal analysis of apiaries.

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  Understanding the nexus of nutrition, the microbiome, and xenobiotics susceptibility in the honey bee

  Core Project

  Adam Dolezal at UIUC and Irene Newton at IU are studying how nutrition, viral infection, and a beneficial bacterium impact honey bee health.

Publications

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  Ganote et al., 2025

  Ganote, C., Caesar, L., Rice, D. W., Whitaker, R. J., & Newton, I. L. G. (2025). Evolutionary trends in Bombella apis CRISPR-Cas systems. bioRxiv.

  https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.05.636693
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  Robinson et al., 2025

  Robinson, C. R. P., Dolezal, A. G., Liachko, I., & Newton, I. L. G. (2025). Mobile genetic elements exhibit associated patterns of host range variation and sequence diversity within the gut microbiome of the European honey bee. bioRxiv.

  https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.31.635958
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  Caesar et al., 2024

  Caesar, L., Rice, D. W., McAfee, A., Underwood, R., Ganote, C., Tarpy, D. R., Foster, L. J., & Newton, I. R. L. (2024). Metagenomic analysis of the honey bee queen microbiome reveals low bacterial diversity and Caudoviricetes phage. mSystems, 9:e01182-23.

  https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01182-23
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  Robinson et al., 2024

  Robinson, C. R. P., Dolezal, A. G., & Newton, I. L. G. (2024). Host species and geography impact bee-associated RNA virus communities with evidence for isolation by distance in viral populations. ISME Communications, 4(1), 1-14.

  https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycad003
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  Massey & Newton, 2022

  Massey, J. H., & Newton, I. L. G. (2022). Diversity and function of arthropod endosymbiont toxins. Trends in Microbiology, 30(2), 185–198.

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2021.06.008
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  Parish et al., 2022

  Parish, A. J., Rice, D. W., Tanquary, V. M., Tennessen, J. M., & Newton, I. L. G. (2022). Honey bee symbiont buffers larvae against nutritional stress and supplements lysine. ISME Journal, 16(9), 2160–2168.

  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01268-x