Paper on cold adaptation across bumble bee ranges published

We finally published data from a longstanding project looking at cold adaptation in bumble bees. We started colonies from across the geographic range of B. vosnesenskii (across latitude and altitude) and measured thermal limits (CTmin and CTmax) as well as gene expression in all bees. We found a striking correlation of CTmin with annual mean temperature experienced by each population, and likewise found interesting correlations in gene expression in response to cold across the species range. Intriguingly there was little variation in CTmax or in the genomic response to warming, suggesting species may be constrained in terms of adaptability to increasing environmental temperatures.

Pimsler, M.L., Oyen, K.J., Herndon, J.D. et al. Biogeographic parallels in thermal tolerance and gene expression variation under temperature stress in a widespread bumble bee. Sci Rep 10, 17063 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73391-8