When honey bees shift from nurse bees to foragers, or from caring for the brood to foraging for nectar and pollen, the bees “turn on” gene expression with products that protect against microorganisms and degrade toxins, three scientists at the University of California, Davis scientists have discovered.
The paper on bee immunity and toxin metabolism was published Nov. 9 in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature Publishing Group.
“First, the results suggest that forager bees may use antimicrobial peptides—short sequences of amino acids with general activity– to reduce microbial growth in stored food resources,” said Rachel Vannette of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “This would be a largely unrecognized way that bees protect honey and potentially other stored resources from microbial spoilage. Second, this work shows that forager bees produce toxin-degrading enzymes in nectar-processing tissues.”
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=19463
Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
kegarvey@ucdavis.edu