TAKE ONE
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November 2021
GARDENERNEWS.COM
TAKE ONE No. 223
Breeding Honey Bees for Adaptation to Regionalized Plants and Artificial Diets By Kim Kaplan USDA ARS Honey bees could be intentionally bred to thrive on plants that are already locally present or even solely on artificial diets, according to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study. ARS researchers found individual bees respond differently to the same diet and that there is a strong genetic component involved in how they respond to nutrition. This points directly to the concept that managed bees can be intentionally bred to do better on different diets, whether you are talking about an artificial diet or a diet based on specific plants already growing in an area, explained lead researcher Vincent A. Ricigliano. He is with the ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Urban development, moder n agricultural systems and environmental alterations due to climate change, invasive plants, and even local landscaping preferences have all had a hand in regionalizing plants
Peggy Greb/Photo
As a honey bee, Apis mellifera, feeds on a zinnia flower, the nectar is stored in a honey sac, which is octarate from its digestive stomach, until she returns to the hive. When it is full, the honey sac weighs about one third the weight of the entire bee. After she delivers the nectar to an in-hive worker bee, the long process of converting it into honey, the bees’ food, begins. that dominate available pollen. It could potentially be more beneficial to tailor honey bees to do better on what is already available instead of working hard to fit
the environment to the bees,” Ricigliano said. The overall aim would be breeding to improve nutrient use by managed honey bees, like we have done for poultry
and cattle breeding programs, Ricigliano explained. “Now that we know there is room for genetic adaptation to diet, we could also look at breeding honey bees with
improved nutrient efficiency or identifying genotype biomarkers that respond to various supplements to promote honey bee health,” he added. (Cont. on Page 18)