Royal jelly flicks a switch

The royal jelly secret that turns larvae into queens rather than workers may have been uncovered.

Scientists at the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU) have discovered that royal jelly flicks a genetic switch in larvae.

"Royal jelly seems to chemically modify the bee’s genome by a process called DNA methylation and disrupts the expression of genes that turn young bees into workers," explains Dr Ryszard Maleszka.

"When we ‘silenced’ a gene controlling DNA methylation without recourse to royal jelly, we discovered that the larvae began to develop as queens with the associated fertility, rather than as infertile workers."

DNA methylation is well-known in animals, but they think this has been the first time it has been observed in insects.

The process also has implications in the age-old nature-nurture debate. Here, environment (food) can be seen to be affecting genetic development.

The work grew out of the honeybee genome project.

Bee origins

The four most common subspecies of honey bee originated in Africa, not Asia, and entered Europe in two separate migrations, according to honeybee genome research published in Science.

And American bees were a complete mix of the three different introduced European subspecies -- and now Africanised bees.

Ways and genes

A tiny insight into the mechanics of genome research from North Texas e-News:

The microarray, a device that can measure thousands of genes simultaneously, allows scientists to study honeybee genes and apply the information to a broad range of research interests for bees and other organisms. For example, American Foul Brood (AFB), a disease caused by bacteria, attacks bee larvae. Large infestations of AFB can lead to the death of entire honey bee colonies. The microarray lets researchers look at how AFB is affecting the bee, what genes are involved in the process, and, more importantly, scientists can determine an appropriate immune response to provide further protection for honey bee health.

Girls eat sterile men

The honeybee genome project is set to have reverberations throughout the beekeeping world. Here's an intriguing aspect considering a few reports last winter of some colonies dying off without an obvious cause.

Bees -- along with wasps, ants, ticks, mites -- have unfertilized eggs that develop into males. The discovery in 2003 of the complementary sex determination (CSD) gene helped explain the phenomenon. CSD has many versions, or alleles. Males inherit a single copy of the gene; females inherit two copies that are different. Bees that inherit two identical copies of CSD would develop into sterile males if they weren't eaten by bees as larvae to save resources.

And guess what can happen through inbreeding? It increases the likelihood of producing sterile males. And then colonies may die.

Honeybee Genome Scoop!

A kind reader has shown me the news release due to be distributed tomorrow about the completion of the honeybee genome project.

The sequence covers more than 98 percent of the genome and the primary results will be presented in the October 26 issue of Nature. The honey bee project is one of five insect genomes the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine has undertaken, including the fruit fly, wasp, pea aphid, and red flour beetle.

The honey bee has many vertebrate genes not previously found in sequenced insect genomes. These are not recently developed genes, but date back 600 million year to the last common ancestor of bees and vertebrates. Their absence in other insects is a reflection of evolutionary specialization in the different insect lineages.

“The honey bee genome sequence will aid genetic research into host-pathogen interactions,” said Dr. Kim Worley, Ph.D., also of the BCM-HGSC. “There are striking differences between the immune system gene complements of honey bees and other sequenced insects.”

Catch-up

Apologies for the recent lack of posts, but it is summer after all. There will be even fewer posts over the next three weeks -- ie none -- since I will be elsewhere. But normal posting will be resumed in early September. Meanwhile here's a quick roundup of news over the past few weeks:

New York Times (subscription needed) reports that

An unapproved type of genetically engineered grass has been found growing in the wild in what scientists say could be the first instance in the United States in which a biotechnology plant has established itself outside a farm.

Indian biologists claim that some males bees and wasps can be made to do some work like feeding larvae instead of just living for sex.

Why do queens, raised from any egg, live far longer than workers? An Australian researcher is on the case. And he wonders if the principles, when discovered, will apply to humans.

A piece about Slovakian beekeeping.

German medical researchers have announced that honey is more effective in healing problem wounds, ulcers and skin conditions than standard antibiotics.

The UK Bumblebee Conservation Trust have set up a £100,000 appeal to create a reserve on the west coast of the Uists (islands off the west coast of Scotland).

Bears reduced Bhutan's developing honey industry by destroying 60 colonies. Apparently, Apis mellifera was first introduced to Bhutan by a private beekeeper as late as 1987. The association has 28 beekeepers, 370 hives producing 8,400 to 10,300 kilos of honey annually.

One of me bees got inside my pants and wrought revenge (no links, no pix!).