New research suggests bees vaccinate their offspring naturally when the queen of the colony introduce various pathogens to the young bees.
According to The Washington Post, authors of a study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens noticed the natural vaccination when analyzing the protein in the bees' blood.
Like humans, bees introduce their offspring to pathogens in small concentrations so their immune system can develop a resistance to it. But the bees' delivery system is quite different. The queen bee eats food laced with the pathogens and passes them onto the eggs she is carrying.
"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," study co-author Gro Amdam, a professor at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences, said in a press release. "Our amazing discovery was made possible because of 15 years of basic research on vitellogenin. This exemplifies how long-term investments in basic research pay off."
The researchers hope their work can help come up with a solution for a phenomenon called "colony collapse," which is brought on by harmful pesticides. Scientists could help bees immunize themselves against threats they cannot prepare for by putting the pathogens in the bees' food.
"I have been working on bee immune priming since the start of my doctoral studies. Now almost 10 years later, I feel like I've solved an important part of the puzzle," study co-author Dalial Freitak, a postdoctoral researcher with University of Helsinki, said in the release. "It's a wonderful and very rewarding feeling!
"We are patenting a way to produce a harmless vaccine, as well as how to cultivate the vaccines and introduce them to bee hives through a cocktail the bees would eat. They would then be able to stave off disease."
