[Pollinator] Honeybee genome mapping

[Kimberly Winter]

Fascinating article about the honeybee genome, including hard-wiring for 
behavioral differences that maintain divisions of labor within the hive, and 
evolutionary lineages of bees:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003323459&zsection_id=2002107549&slug=bees26&date=20061026

Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 12:00 AM

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(KALISPELL) DAILY INTER LAKE
A honeybee's brain has only one-millionth the number of neurons as a human 
brain.




Scientists map honeybees' genome

By Bryn Nelson
Newsday

Researchers have pieced together the genetic blueprint for the honeybee, 
uncovering clues that point to an African origin and to a remarkable 
evolutionary transformation in an insect known for its memory, symbolic 
language and hierarchical caste system.

The honeybee has enjoyed a reputation as a master pollinator and honey 
producer. Yet scientists have marveled at the stark divisions of labor that 
separate the offspring-producing queens, sperm-yielding male drones and 
female worker bees that assume the defense, housekeeping and food-gathering 
responsibilities.

How, researchers wondered, could the same set of genes produce such 
radically different behaviors among hive inhabitants — especially in insects 
whose tiny brains possess only one-millionth the number of neurons as human 
brains?

The switch from a solitary to colony-focused lifestyle required nothing less 
than a "revolution at the genomic level," writes Harvard biologist Edward 
Wilson in today's issue of the journal Nature. In the same publication, The 
Honeybee Genome Sequence Consortium reports on the social revolution 
"encoded subtly" within a genome possessing slightly more than 10,000 genes.

"Honey bees are important models to study the regulation and evolution of 
life in a society, especially social behavior itself," said Gene Robinson, 
co-leader of the group that did the sequencing and director of the 
neuroscience program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
(UIUC).

"We hope to extrapolate the biology to humans," added Saurabh Sinha, a 
computer-science professor at UIUC who led a companion study about genes 
involved in social behavior.

Bees and people


Scientists use honeybees to study human health, including immunity, allergic 
reaction, antibiotic resistance, development, mental health, social behavior 
and longevity.
George Weinstock, a leader of the research consortium, wrote in an e-mail 
that the knowledge also may aid in understanding the genetic underpinnings 
of behaviors ranging from the unusual altruism seen among worker bees to the 
aggressiveness that characterizes African "killer bees."

He said the consortium also identified genes that protect the bee from 
toxins, a useful tool in understanding the insect's sensitivities or 
resistances to the pesticides that some blame for the declining fortunes of 
bees and other U.S. plant pollinators.

Bees, the study suggests, have many genes for detecting odors but relatively 
few for taste receptors or innate immunity. Small bits of RNA even seem to 
show different on-off patterns depending on whether they're in queens or 
workers, hinting at a mechanism for retaining social standings.

Somewhere along their evolutionary pathway, honeybees also gained a gifted 
memory for nectar sources and an ability to communicate the relative 
distance and direction of these sources with a "waggle dance," the only 
symbolic language yet found beyond the primates. The new genomic data, 
researchers say, could help reveal the basis for both traits.

Within a swarm of accompanying studies, a separate group used genetic 
variations among different honeybee subspecies to suggest that the Apis 
mellifera lineage arose in Africa — not in Asia, as originally thought — and 
spread to Europe and Asia in two ancient migrations.

They were brought to the New World by European explorers beginning in 1622.

And a research duo announced in the journal Science that they have 
discovered a 100-million-year-old amber-encased bee — by far the oldest ever 
found. Study co-author and Cornell University entomologist Bryan Danforth 
said the tiny insect may help fill in a family tree that now contains about 
16,000 species. The discovery, he said, raises new insights about the 
possible co-evolution of early bees and the small flowering plants just 
beginning their expansion across a prehistoric landscape.


Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.


Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company


~Kim

--> Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org <--

Kimberly Winter, Ph.D.
International Coordinator
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
Internet: www.nappc.org, www.pollinator.org
Ph: (301) 219-7030