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Promiscuous queens key to healthier colonies

Fresh buzz
Last Updated 04 May 2018, 05:31 IST

The highly promiscuous mating behaviour of queen honey bees hold the key to a healthier bee colony, finds a new study, providing clues to how populations of this important pollinators can be prevented from declining.

Researchers at Wellesley College at Massachusetts in the US found that queen bees’ promiscuous behaviour gives rise to a genetically diverse population of workers bees which are benefited from diverse symbiotic microbial communities, less loads of bacteria from pathogenic groups and more bacteria related to helpful probiotic species.

This significantly improves the health of their colonies, the researchers said, adding that the findings can be used to improve the declining number of bees which pollinate over 400 crops worldwide and contribute to about a third of our diet.

“We have never known how healthier bees are generated by genetic diversity, but this study provides strong clues,” said Heather Mattila, a honey bee ecologist at Wellesley College and that lead researcher of the study.


“Our findings suggest that genetically diverse honey bees have the advantage of broader microbial communities, which may be key to improving colony health and nutrition — and to understanding factors that can mitigate honey bee decline.” A deadly disease called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is believed to be the reason behind the rapid decline in honey bee populations. However, researchers have long observed that a high level of genetic diversity within a colony improves the overall health and productivity of the colony.

But how colony members produce this effect was largely unknown. To find out, Mattila and his team compared two groups of honey bee colonies — one consisted of genetically diverse populations and another with genetically uniform bees.

Using 16S rRNA pyrosequencing — an advanced molecular technique that had never before been used to study active bacteria in honey bees — the scientists were able to identify and compare bacteria across the colonies.

The results were astonishing, said the researchers, as they found that diverse colonies had a significantly greater variety of active bacterial species with 1,105 species, while only 781 species were found in uniform colonies.

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(Published 13 March 2012, 17:08 IST)

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