Studying honey bee health in in vitro systems

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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.