ANISSA KENNEDY
Penn State President’s Postdoctoral Fellow Program, 2022-Present
EDUCATION:
2022 Johannes-Gutenberg Universität, PhD Organismic Molecular Ecology and Evolutions Biology
2018 University of North Carolina at Greensboro, MS Biology
2016 Winston-Salem State University, BS Biology
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
I use honey bees as a study system for analyzing how chemical cues and internal physiology work together to influence behavior, from genes to the colony environment. I am particularly interested in understanding how queen, brood, and other worker pheromones interact at various levels of behavior and development.
My PhD work focused on honey bee foraging behavior. My thesis aimed to answer research questions regarding the genomic basis of a foragers decision between using social versus private information. During my time, I was able to conduct experiments that explored gene expression differences between foragers that used either social or private information, how reward perception and reinforcement influenced gene expression and the subsequent decision to use either social or private information, and how information is used over the lifetime of a forager. I was also able to collaborate with a colleague to explore my research interest on how queen presence influences worker gene expression at critical adult life stages and link the gene expression profiles to foraging activity. Alongside my behavioral studies I analyzed gene expression profiles in the antennae and various brain regions.
During my time at Penn State, I have expanded my research to other bee species: Mason bees (Osmia cornifrons) and Alfalfa leafcuttings bees (Megachile rotundata). I am currently exploring mating behavior of the two species, comparing CHC profiles of pre-and post-mated males and females and observing their mate choice preferences. My future career goals are to build upon and incorporate my experience in behavioral and chemical ecology to include landscape and agroecology.
PUBLICATIONS:
Kennedy, A., Peng, T., Glaser, S. M., Linn, M., Foitzik, S., & Grüter, C. (2021). Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain. Molecular Ecology, 30(11), 2676-2688.
Kennedy, A., Herman, J., & Rueppell, O. (2021). Reproductive activation in honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers protects against abiotic and biotic stress. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 376(1823), 20190737.
Waiker, P., Baral, S., Kennedy, A., Bhatia, S., Rueppell, A., Le, K., ... & Rueppell, O. (2019). Foraging and homing behavior of honey bees (Apis mellifera) during a total solar eclipse. The Science of Nature, 106(1), 1-10.