Thursday, April 19, 2018

What Makes a Queen Bee, Queen?

What Makes a Queen Bee, Queen? 

Unlike the English monarchy, queen bees are not born females. Their development into queens stems from their diet of “royal jelly” which is secreted from the glands of the nurse bees. The larvae that feed on a mixture of pollen and honey develop into worker bees. However, researchers have found that diet alone does not solely determine the caste of the larvae. MicroRNA is the second factor in determining bee caste. The effects of microRNA include stunted body and ovarian grown in bees. This could potentially help solve the crisis of our declining rate of honey bees. Since there has been a significant decrease in honeybees over the decade, it could be possible to use this information to selectively breed more worker honey bees. 


3 comments:

  1. I think this is a really cool article. I think this could be something that could increase bee populations if scientists could find a way to manipulate the MicroRNA in the larvae.

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  2. This is interesting. As a honey lover like myself, I was saddened by the news over the last few years that honey bees are decreasing, meaning no more honey. This discovery is interesting and I hope they start testing out the possibility that they could use this to breed more worker bees to save the species and the honey

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  3. This is a very interesting post. I did not know this about bee, I would have assumed the queen bee was was born female. It will be great if scientists are able to use this new discovery to stop the decline of the honey bee population.

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