Researchers have long been stunned by the declining numbers of honey bees, with the ability to reproduce queen bees. But a new study may help explain why.
A team from North Carolina State University in the U.S. and the University of British Columbia in Canada published their work in the journal Communications Biology. Researchers describe in detail what they have found out why queen bees fail, with a focus on how low sperm function can lead to the secretion of protein – which is well known working against pathogens such as viruses and bacteria – growing tall.
Explaining the decline of honey bees
This new research has a major impact on beekeepers and farmers who still rely on honey bees for pollen pollination, according to David Tarpy, University Faculty Scholar and NC State Department of Plant Entomology and Pathology.
“Conservators have identified problem queens as a major regulatory concern, but the root causes of the problem are largely invisible. Queens are getting worse, and we don’t know why,” Tarpy said in a statement. from NC State.
According to Alison McAfee, a postdoc scientist at both NC State and UBC and lead author of the study, a healthy hide depends on having a healthy queen – the only woman in the colony capable of reproduction. Queen honey bees reproduce by several male bees early in life, storing all the accumulated sperm in an abdominal organ called the spermatheca. The storage and use of these marrow lasts for the life of the queen. When these sperm are short-lived, they severely limit the queen’s ability to produce fertilized eggs, leading to a decline in their population.
McAfee says queens typically live for up to five years. But recently, queens – most of these colonies that are under control – will be replaced within the first six months because they are failing.
“If a keeper is very lucky, a queen may live two years,” said the lead author.
RELATED ARTICLE: Honey bee populations continue to decline as insect use worsens
Detecting sperm potential in honey bees
“The more we find out about what is happening within these failed queens, the closer we can understand why this queen tape is happening in the first place. , “McAfee adds.
To try to identify the problem, researchers found that queen bees that did not reproduce had significantly lower sperms compared to those that continue to reproduce, with a higher percentage of the sperm they have already dying. In addition, it was found that unhealthy queen bees had more accumulations of viruses, especially sacbrood virus and black queen cell. Researchers used a method called fluorescent staining, showing which sperms were still alive and which were already dead.
McAfee explains that these two factors made them wonder if trade was happening instead, adding to the classical theory of reproductive biology that there could be something in exchange for their existing reproductive abilities. shrinking. They used a beauty spectrum to better understand the spermatheca interior of the queen honey bee. Researchers found up to 2,000 different proteins, identifying which had something to do with sperm function.
One of these proteins was lysozyme, part of immune systems in animals, and queens had low lysozyme concentrations with high sperm function.
LOVE ARTICLE: Bees have been named the most important life on earth