Bees Naturally Vaccinating Their Babies Can Help Humans

• comments
• 
• 

Scientists have recently discovered that the queen bee naturally vaccinates her children through food consumption, which could help researchers develop vaccines to treat pathogens that affect bees and other pollinators.

The researchers of the study from Arizona State University, the University of Helsinki, the University of Jyväskylä and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, recently published their findings in the journal PLOS Pathogens, states Nature World News.

Professor Gro Amdam, from ASU's School of Life Sciences and one of the authors of the study states: "The process by which bees transfer immunity to their babies was a big mystery until now. What we found is that it's as simple as eating."

Amdam goes on to say that 15 years of basic research on vitellogenin, a protein found in bees, aided in the discovery. Clapway explains that vitellogen plays an important part of a bee's vaccination.

How bee vaccination works

Queen bees do not usually leave the colony, as a result, worker bees bring her food. However, these worker bees usually pick up several bacteria or pathogens from the environment, while out gathering food and pollen.

Nature World News clarifies that the forager bees make a special food for the queen bee specifically, called royal jelly. The pathogens that the worker bees carry usually end up in the royal jelly and consumed by their queen.

After consumption, the pathogens travel to the queen's gut, without affecting her. Through the gut, the pathogens transfer to her body cavity and arrive at the queen's "fat body," which is equivalent to the human liver.

In the fat body, parts of the bacteria clings to the vitellogenin protein, which carries the bacteria to the queen's eggs through her blood, reports Clapway.

The discovery has allowed scientists to gain ground on developing a vaccine for bees, since there are some pathogens that still affect them. Phys.org explains that the bee population in the United States alone has dropped from six million to two and a half million, partly due to disease.

Dalial Freitnak, a co-author of the study from the University of Helsinki, states that the researchers are finding a way to create a harmless vaccine, which the bees and other animals can digest.

Bees and other egg-laying animals such as fish and poultry all have vitellogenin. Finding a natural way to vaccinate these species will greatly benefit food production for humans.

Phys.org adds that these species, particularly bees, play an important role in global food production. In fact, some pollinating insects actually pollinate 87 of the top 115 food crops in North America. Bees, in particular, aid in the production of fruits, nuts, and vegetables.