Gene studies for healthier bees

The honeybee genome may help in the search for healthier bees and better bred bees.

An entomologist and a molecular biologist in the USA are interested in characterizing genes involved in potential resistance to the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, which causes American Foulbrood. They say that one tantalizing lead is abaecin, a small protein that may be part of a resistance response in some bees to foulbrood infection