Studying honey bee health in in vitro systems

在体外系统中研究蜜蜂的健康状况

• 批准号: 311654-2011
• 负责人: Foster, Leonard
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=548469
• 关键词: Studying; honey; bee; health; vitro

The importance of bees as pollinators cannot be understated: approximately one out of every three bites of food we put in our mouths is directly or indirectly dependent on bees, largely through their pollination activities. Honey bees have been in the North American news frequently of late because beekeepers in Canada and the US have averaged loses of about one third of their bee hives each winter for the past four years; on Vancouver Island last year the losses exceeded 80%! In the US many of these losses have been attributed to the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder but it is not at all clear what the cause of CCD is. In Canada most of the winter losses of bees are attributed to problems we do understand: a parasitic mite, fungal infections and weather. Beekeepers use chemicals to control various infectious diseases, including the mite and fungi mentioned, but this is not always effective and is in any case undesirable. Unfortunately, we know very little about the interactions between bees and their diseases, and that is the deficiency we aim to address here. This research focuses on developing our understanding of the mechanisms used by microorganisms to cause disease in honey bees, making use of modern research technology that is dependent on having the honey bee genome sequenced. Our hope is that by improving our understanding of the diseases we will be able to design better approaches to helping this most beneficial insect deal with the diseases that currently threaten it.

蜜蜂作为传粉者的重要性不可低估：我们口中大约每三口食物中就有一口直接或间接依赖于蜜蜂，主要是通过它们的授粉活动。蜜蜂最近频繁出现在北美的新闻中，因为在过去的四年里，加拿大和美国的养蜂人平均每年冬天损失大约三分之一的蜂箱；去年在温哥华岛，损失超过80%！在美国，这些损失中的许多被归因于神秘的殖民地崩溃紊乱，但完全不清楚是什么原因造成的。在加拿大，冬季蜜蜂的大部分损失都归因于我们确实了解的问题：寄生虫、真菌感染和天气。养蜂人使用化学物质来控制各种传染病，包括上面提到的蠕虫和真菌，但这并不总是有效的，而且无论如何都是不受欢迎的。不幸的是，我们对蜜蜂和它们的疾病之间的相互作用知之甚少，这正是我们在这里要解决的不足之处。这项研究的重点是发展我们对微生物导致蜜蜂疾病的机制的理解，利用依赖于蜜蜂基因组测序的现代研究技术。我们的希望是，通过提高我们对疾病的理解，我们将能够设计出更好的方法来帮助这种最有益的昆虫应对目前威胁它的疾病。