We are part of the entomology department at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Current research projects are primarily focused on honey bee behavior and health, but past projects have utilized a number of different arthropod species, and the lab thrives on a broadly comparative scientific framework.
Big questions of interest:
- How do social interactions “get under the skin” to cause behavioral change?
- Why do some social experiences have lifelong impacts while others do not?
- How do the brain and peripheral systems interact to regulate behavior?
- Are there evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of behavioral regulation?
Current projects:
- Mechanisms that encode temporal dynamics of socially regulated aggression
- The neural energetics of aggression
- The molecular mechanisms that link aggression to health resilience
- Social transmission of robbing behavior
- Queen stress and impacts on worker health
Representative publications:
Rittschof, C.C. et. al. (2018) Brain mitochondrial bioenergetics change with rapid and prolonged shifts in aggression in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Journal of Experimental Biology. 221.
Rittschof, C.C. & K.A. Hughes. (2018) Advancing behavioural genomics by considering timescale. Nature Communications. 9: 489.
Rittschof, C.C. (2017) Sequential social experiences interact to modulate aggression but not brain gene expression in the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Frontiers in Zoology. 14: 1-10.
Rittschof, C.C. & S. Schirmeier (2017) Insect models of central nervous system energy metabolism and its links to behavior. Glia. 66: 1160-1175.
Rittschof, C.C. et. al. (2015) Early-life experience affects honey bee aggression and resilience to immune challenge. Scientific Reports. 5:15572.
Rittschof, C.C. et. al. (2014) Neuromolecular responses to social challenge: common mechanisms across mouse, stickleback fish and honey bee. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111: 17929-17934.
