MARKHAM, Ont. — The future of honeybee breeding lies with genomics, according to researchers at York University.
Genetic mutations that point to African heritage have already been identified.
“There’s a little bit of Africa in the Canadian honeybee,” graduate student Brock Harpur said Nov. 20 during the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association’s annual meeting.
Fortunately, a small amount of African heritage doesn’t make for an Africanized bee, which is popularly referred to as killer bees.
“An Africanized killer bee would have 70, 80 percent African genetics,” said York biology professor Amro Zayed.
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The highest levels of African genetics found during the Canadian survey were five to eight percent.
Harpur, who heads the bee genetics project at Zayed’s laboratory, said he used single nucleotide polymorphisms genotyping to identify mutations that distinguish groups of bees from each other.
Eight to 12 million mutations exist worldwide among the honeybee population, and 96 have been found that can be used to identify African bees.
There are four major subspecies of the western honeybee: African, Asian, German and Italian. Canadian honeybee genetics lean heavily toward the Italian subspecies (apis mellifera ligustica), with a bit of German (mellifera mellifera) and African (mellifera scutellata) as well.
Zayed said being able to test bees for their genetic background can help keep the aggressive African genetics out of Canada.
For instance, Canadian beekeepers’ ability to import queens from Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia could be significantly affected if African bees were to reach those countries.
The African influence in Canada may have arrived decades ago when hybridized bees were imported from such regions as the Middle East, Zayed said.
Brock is now looking for mutations related to hygienic behaviour, but the technology can be applied to other characteristics as well, from honey productivity to grooming behaviour.
“I think this is the future of bee breeding,” Zayed said.
Aggressive grooming and strong hygienic behaviour promote resistance to the varroa mite, one of the biggest concerns for apiarists worldwide.
Another team of honeybee re-searchers under the leadership of Dr. Ernesto Guzman at the University of Guelph is looking at how neonicotinoid-laced corn pollen and nectar affect honeybees.
Two sets of hives are involved in the trial. One was placed near a field of corn treated with the neonicotinoid clothianidin, while the other was near a field of organic corn.
Hives were located about six kilo-metres apart so that the bees were exposed to similar weather conditions but didn’t mingle while foraging. Pollen and dead bees were collected from traps at the hives for analysis.
The trial is to be repeated next year.
Another study looks at the potential interaction between clothianidin, a type of neonicotinoid, and the ability of honeybees to resist varroa mites. It evaluated honeybee larvae and adults exposed to field-realistic, sub-lethal doses of the neonicotinoid, and larvae and adults that had not.
The larvae were compared for de-velopment, mortality and weight. Bee blood samples were taken.
Similar evaluations were carried out for adult bees, and researchers are also looking for differences in grooming and foraging behaviors and memory retention.
Results are not yet available.
