>Thank you Dick for your previous response to the above.  Not all understand
that in a healthy colony under ideal circumstances, immune expression in a
colony would be downregulated, not upregulated.

But could the flipside be that under less than ideal circumstances, i.e. considering that pathogens are constantly present and being vectored, that the colony is better off with an upregulated immune expression?

Could it be that there is more upregulation with natural pollen than with protein supplements similar to that seen with honey vs. sucrose or hfcs, and could it be possible that the better results obtained with mixed natural pollens are achieved in part through upregulation? 

The extreme case of downregulation is immunodeficiency while the extreme case of upregulation is autoimmune disease.  Something in between is necessary for homeostasis.  How do we determine what level of regulation is ideal for a bee colony?

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html