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Is it possible to learn from these organisms to help other organisms? Heat Stressors, Climate Change.
Professor Jonathan Snow heads the Snow Lab at Barnard College.
One word that comes to Professor Snow’s mind when he thinks of bees is “FASCINATING”!
Remember, in my prior interviews, Ms. Harris mentioned bees are ‘COMPLEX’, Prof Spivak mentioned they are ‘INTERESTING’, Ms. Kihwelo associates them with “nature, plant, wealth”…and now Professor Snow mentions that he finds bees fascinating!
Why fascinating? From when did he start thinking of them as fascinating?
Trained as a biologist during undergraduate studies, Professor Jonathan Snow pursued his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences where he focused on molecular mechanisms of disease in humans. During his postdoc years, he wanted to study something different, specifically food and agriculture. So, he ‘looked around at different systems that will allow him to apply his way of thinking to an agricultural problem’. At that point, he happened to take a beekeeping class. With a reminiscent smile, Professor Snow says it felt like love at first sight and he never looked back😊.
He felt it was also a good time to apply his skill set to bee-related research. Two main areas of research in the Snow lab are the cell-stress responses of bees and infectious diseases in bees, the latter is also looked upon as another stress. More recently he is looking into heat stress, for example, the impact of climate change and how it is impacting bees.
According to Professor Snow, it is interesting to study honeybees for temperature stressors as they have ways of ‘withstanding temperature changes at different levels of biological organization, for example, cellular mechanisms, organismal mechanisms, and colony levels to regulate temperature’. If interested, take a peek at his paper on honeybees’ capabilities of enduring thermal stress: Thermal stress induces tissue damage and a broad shift in regenerative signaling pathways in the honeybee digestive tract; Journal of Experimental Biology, (2021).
So, my question to the professor was, are honeybees, being able to withstand extreme hot or cold temperatures, more equipped to deal with harsher repercussions of climate change?
Professor Snow mentions, overall, bees seem to be relatively more resistant to heat stressors compared to some other organisms out there. Perhaps, in the future, it is possible to study the mechanisms these organisms use that allows them to be resistant to temperature changes and help other low-resistant organisms. It would be interesting to learn why bees are good at this, and how we can apply that knowledge to help other organisms that are not good with temperature changes and help them.
He also mentions that although honeybees are relatively more resistant to extreme temperatures, this resistance to extreme heat or cold temperatures can result in some sort of energy expenditure to withstand that temperature change and can synergize with other stresses as well. Further, there could be some temperature changes possible which they might not be able to withstand.
So, what are the right temperature and right time to use in heat stressor experiments?
When asked about how they decide on the temperatures to be used for the experimental treatments regarding heat stressors for their lab experiments, Professor Snow mentions they try to use sub-lethal temperatures for a time duration that is not lethal for the bees but long enough for gene expression changes to occur.
Listen to him as he explains how there has been a lot of discussion in the field regarding what is the right temperature for such experimental conditions.
Professor Snow’s journey to the bee-related research world started with his beekeeping course and his interest to pursue something different during his postdoc years, and this journey and his determination to study bees are unfaltering. When asked about any challenges he faced during his bee-related projects, he mentions keeping bees in the city can be challenging, for example, floral resources are scarce in New York City.
Professor Snow, we wish you, your BEES, and your lab the very best for your future research and hope to learn more about the heat-withstanding mechanisms of honeybees.
Want to learn more about the people and the work done at Snow Lab?
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