Our group has its research focus on fundamentals of honeybee biology and specifically onto principles of disease resistance in honeybees.

Honeybees are ecologically and economically most relevant insects. In order to understand how honeybees prevent and fight diseases we use a wide scope of technologies. We have introduced a new technology (RFID=Radio frequency identification) into the behavioural biology of insects, which now allows a life long-recoding of behavioural data for individual bees This technology will allow in future to link a complete data set on identified honeybee individuals with biochemical and genetics details on the same animals aiming at an understanding how the bee-controlled environmental conditions inside the nest may be used by the bees to fight diseases. We use methods from animal physiology and behavioural biology and to study physical and cognitive abilities in healthy and infected bees. Histological and biochemical methods help to survey the hemolymph (“blood”) of healthy and infected individuals. PC modelling of colony efficiency is an important tool for the integration of detailed experimental results.

 

 

Selected awards:

 

1973 - 1974 Stipend awarded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes

 

1974 - 1977 PhD-stipend awarded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes

 

1978 Byk-award of Herbert Quandt-foundation for an outstanding dissertation

 

DFG 1988 Heisenberg fellowship

 

2005 By EMBO among the best in Europe to communicate science

 

 

 

For detailed information about Prof. Dr. Tautz's publications please go here

 

http://www.bienenforschung.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/wir_ueber_uns/mitglieder/