# Geneticly engineered bees



## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Studies and papers accumulate about the genetic engineering of the honeybee. Since we as beekeepers maybe are confronted one day with a genetically modified honeybee, this is the thread we collect studies on the topic of the GMO bee. Feel free to contribute. Not much discussion, please, just a collection.

Just as a start: 

Increased survival of the honey bee Apis melliferainfected with the microsporidian Nosema ceranae by effective gene silencing

This study examined the control of nosemosis caused by Nosema ceranae, one of the hard‐to‐control diseases of honey bees, using RNA interference (RNAi) technology. Double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA) for RNAi application targeted the mitosome‐related genes of N. ceranae. Among the various mitosome‐related genes, NCER_100882, NCER_101456, NCER_100157, and NCER_100686 exhibited relatively low homologies with the orthologs of Apis mellifera. Four gene‐specific dsRNAs were prepared against the target genes and applied to the infected A. mellifera to analyze Nosema proliferation and honey bee survival. Two dsRNAs specifics to NCER_101456 and NCER_100157 showed high inhibitory effects on spore production by exhibiting only 62% and 67%, respectively, compared with the control. In addition, these dsRNA treatments significantly rescued the honey bees from the fatal nosemosis. It was confirmed that the inhibition of Nosema spore proliferation and the increase in the survival rate of honey bees were resulted from a decrease in the expression level of each target gene by dsRNA treatment. However, dsRNA mixture treatment was no more effective than single treatments in the rescue from the nosemosis. It is expected that the four newly identified mitosome‐related target genes in this study can be effectively used for nosemosis control using RNAi technology.

Kim, I‐H, Kim, D‐J, Gwak, W‐S, Woo, S‐D. Increased survival of the honey bee Apis melliferainfected with the microspordian Nosema ceranae by effective gene silencing. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 2020;e21734. https://doi.org/10.1002/arch.21734
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/arch.21734


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## SuiGeneris (Feb 13, 2018)

BernhardHeuvel said:


> Studies and papers accumulate about the genetic engineering of the honeybee.
> Kim, I‐H, Kim, D‐J, Gwak, W‐S, Woo, S‐D. Increased survival of the honey bee Apis melliferainfected with the microspordian Nosema ceranae by effective gene silencing. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 2020;e21734. https://doi.org/10.1002/arch.21734
> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/arch.21734


While an interesting study, this is not a GMO'd bee. They are feeding the bees a dsRNA via their food which has the capability of entering _Nosema_ and killing it. Essentially, the _Nosema_ accidentally loads the dsRNA into what is normally an anti-viral pathway. This pathway usually targets and destroys viral genomes within cells, but the sequence of the added dsRNA "tricks" this system into targeting a critical _Nosema_ gene, leading to its death. 

It is possible to GMO a dsRNA directly into bees, and is an approach to treat diseases outside of the bees gut (e.g. there were trials along these lines for varroa and DWV in the past), but in this case you don't actually need to GMO the bee to see the benefit. Essentially, its a genetically-targeted pesticide, which is pretty cool as - if designed properly - there is no risk to other organisms in the environment.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Thanks for your statement. Please contribute further to this thread, by adding more studies on GMOed bees. (There are a bunch of them.)


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2020/0289643.html

Method and System for Protecting Honey Bees From Pesticides

A method and system for the treatment of honey bees (Apis mellifera), bats, and butterflies protects them from various life threatening conditions, including Colony Collapse Disorder, white nose syndrome, etc. and in particular, provides honey bees, bats and butterflies with the ability to assimilate and degrade pesticides such as neonicotinoids and fipronil.

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a honey bee with the ability to assimilate pesticides, comprising, inoculating a honey bee with a culture of pesticide degrading bacteria, wherein the pesticide degrading bacteria include genes whose expression by the pesticide degrading bacteria results in the degradation of the pesticide, said pesticide degrading bacteria being modified to include said genes using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) CRISPR associated protein (Cas) system or using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) from prevotella and francisella 1 (Cpf1) nuclease. 

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said genes express cytochrome P450 enzymes. 

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said genes comprise P450 genes of the CYP6 and CYP3 clade. 

4. The method as set forth in claim 3 wherein the genes are selected from the group of CYP6ER1, CYP6G1, CYP6Y3, and CYP353D1v2. 

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the genes are selected from the group consisting of CYP6AS1, CYP6AS3, CYP6AS4, CYP6AS10, CYP9Q1, CYP9Q2 and CYP9Q3. 

6. A method for providing a honey bee with the ability to assimilate pesticides, comprising, inoculating a honey bee with a culture of pesticide degrading bacteria, wherein the pesticide degrading bacteria include genes whose expression by the pesticide degrading bacteria results in the degradation of the pesticide, and said pesticide degrading bacteria being modified to include said genes using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) CRISPR associated protein (Cas) system. 

7. The method as set forth in claim 6, wherein said genes express cytochrome P450 enzymes. 

8. The method as set forth in claim 6, wherein said genes comprise P450 genes of the CYP6 and CYP3 clade. 

9. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the genes are selected from the group of CYP6ER1, CYP6G1, CYP6Y3, and CYP353D1v2. 

10. The method as set forth in claim 6, wherein the genes are selected from the group consisting of CYP6AS1, CYP6AS3, CYP6AS4, CYP6AS10, CYP9Q1, CYP9Q2 and CYP9Q3. 

11. A method for providing a honey bee with the ability to assimilate pesticides, comprising, inoculating the gut of a honey bee with a culture of microbes that normally inhabit the honey bee gut, said microbes possessing the ability to degrade at least one pesticide, said microbes comprising pesticide degrading bacteria that have genes selected from the group consisting of a CYP353D1v2 gene and a SCL3-10 nitrile hydratase beta subunit gene, and wherein the pesticide degrading microbes have been modified using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) CRISPR associated protein (Cas) system or using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) from prevotella and francisella 1 (Cpf1) nuclease such that the expression of said genes results in the degradation by said microbes of at least one pesticide. 

12. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein said genes express cytochrome P450 enzymes. 

13. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein said genes comprise P450 genes of the CYP6 and CYP3 clade. 

14. The method as set forth in claim 13 wherein the genes are selected from the group of CYP6ER1, CYP6G1, CYP6Y3, and CYP353D1v2. 

15. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein the genes are selected from the group consisting of CYP6AS1, CYP6AS3, CYP6AS4, CYP6AS10, CYP9Q1, CYP9Q2 and CYP9Q3.


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## sparkyApis (Apr 9, 2021)

Whilst not strictly GMO I came across this describing the basic playing field for GMO efforts. As with much relating to bees, their chromosome structure and arrangement has its own foibles which impact on any attempt to manipulate allele frequency or to introduce new alleles. This is not essential reading but some may find it interesting. Some of the language is esoteric. I expect that there may be more recent versions of this but I have not run across them so far.
A third-generation microsatellite-based linkage map of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, and its comparison with the sequence-based physical map

Bernhard, sorry if that is too far OT.


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