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Distance-Responsive Genes Found in Dancing Honey Bees |
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Saturday, 28 August 2010 |
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We report that regions of the honey bee brain involved in visual
processing and learning and memory show a specific genomic response to
distance information. These results were obtained with an established
method that separates effects of perceived distance from effects of
actual distance flown. Individuals forced to shift from a short to
perceived long distance to reach a feeding site showed gene expression
differences in the optic lobes and mushroom bodies relative to
individuals that continued to perceive a short distance, even though
they all flew the same distance. Bioinformatic analyses suggest that the
genomic response to distance information involves learning and memory
systems associated with well-known signaling pathways, synaptic
remodeling, transcription factors and protein metabolism. By
demonstrating distance-sensitive brain gene expression, our findings
also dramatically extend the emerging paradigm of the genome as a
dynamic regulator of behavior, that is particularly responsive to
stimuli important in social life.
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Beekeeper educates public about importance of bees |
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 |
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As spectators watched from behind a protective screen, Jim Harris
reached into the beehive, grabbed a bee, placed it on his left wrist,
and did his best to coax the bee into stinging him.
When the bee
wouldn’t sting, Harris found a second bee willing to cooperate. Freshly
stung, Harris held up his wrist, with the bee still attached, and smiled
for a photograph.
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Alabama: Honey bees crucial, extension agent says |
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Sunday, 25 July 2010 |
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The first thing Phillip Carter told Enterprise Rotarians is that working with honey bees is his passion.
“They are efficient, organized and concentrate on one crop at a
time,” he said. Bee populations are also decreasing, and that is a cause
for economic and environmental concern.
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A look at the different types of bees |
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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 |
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There are well over 20,000 different species of bees. They can be
divided into two groups: Social bees, and Solitary bees. Social bees
tend to dwell in colonies, while solitary bees live in solitary thus
their names. Most kinds of bees in existence today are solitary bees.
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Education 
