Sense of smell causally linked to mite resistance

[Fusion_power]

Interesting article in ABJ this month that describes finding marker proteins on antennae associated with mite resistance. Anyone seen other research published online discussion sense of smell in context to honeybee disease/pest resistance?

 

[coffindodger]

There is some - although whether the sense is 'smell' in its usual meaning, I don't know.
This gives a good overview from a couple of years ago:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441115/

 

[bontbee]

Ron Hoskins, Swindon Honeybee Conservation Group, suggests that the bees smell the wound inflicted by feeding varroa, rather than the varroa themselves.

 

[Fusion_power]

From Coffindodger's link,

Masterman R., Smith B. H. & Spivak M. Brood odor discrimination abilities in hygienic honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) using proboscis extension reflex conditioning. J Insect Behav 13, 87–101 (2000).

Spivak M., Masterman R., Ross R. & Mesce K. A. Hygienic behavior in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and the modulatory role of octopamine. J neurobiol 55, 341–354 (2003). [PubMed]

 

[Finman]

From Coffindodger's link,

Masterman R., Smith B. H. & Spivak M. Brood odor discrimination abilities in hygienic honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) using proboscis extension reflex conditioning. J Insect Behav 13, 87–101 (2000).

Spivak M., Masterman R., Ross R. & Mesce K. A. Hygienic behavior in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and the modulatory role of octopamine. J neurobiol 55, 341–354 (2003). [PubMed]

Quite old researches from era when bees' genemap was not ready.
.

 

[Millet]

Interesting article in ABJ this month that describes finding marker proteins on antennae associated with mite resistance. Anyone seen other research published online discussion sense of smell in context to honeybee disease/pest resistance?

The way i understand is Varroa can change there smell when moving from worker to nurse bees or from hive to hive to mimic the host they are on thus making them more or lees invisible by smell in a short time, so how would a bees sense of smell make any difference if the varroa smells the same as the bees in the colony it is in.

 

[coffindodger]

Quite old researches from era when bees' genemap was not ready.
.

Those are papers referenced in the 2015 paper to which I linked. The 2015 paper is based on antennal transcriptomes. Millet and Bontbees comments agree with Prof Steve Martin's view (pers comm) that bees can't smell the varroa themselves, but react to the wounds. Wow; just so much to find out.

 

[Finman]

Those are papers referenced in the 2015 paper to which I linked. The 2015 paper is based on antennal transcriptomes. Millet and Bontbees comments agree with Prof Steve Martin's view (pers comm) that bees can't smell the varroa themselves, but react to the wounds. Wow; just so much to find out.

A while ago German researchers revieled out, that when hygienic bees kill mites from pupa cells, only 1% bees in the colony have ability to notice the mite and open the cell. The research's cost was 1.2 milloin €.

 

[coffindodger]

A while ago German researchers revieled out, that when hygienic bees kill mites from pupa cells, only 1% bees in the colony have ability to notice the mite and open the cell. The research's cost was 1.2 milloin €.

Interesting. Looking at this weeks news on gene editing there may be scope for a change in those figures.
There is a big difference between detecting wounds on a sister and noticing a mite in the cell.
How they spent so much I don't know.The cost shows the problem with getting research funds and explaining or justifying the results to the funder/public. It's a lot of money and what did it prove is their question. I think that the results (haven't seen the original, just your summary) are important, but as a news headline to a non beekeeper this somewhat negative conclusion seems to show a waste of their money. Of course, sometimes parts of the research, techniques or methods are valuable in themselves but don't show in the summary. We're interested in bees, but other insects have similar parasites - and they may be on our plates before too long.