Dr. Spivak mentioned Berenbaum's work in her recent talk in Boulder CO. From her slide (minus the graphics):

Honey constituents up-regulate detoxification and immunity genes in the western honey bee Apis mellifera.
Wenfu Mao, Mary A. Schuler, and May R. Berenbaum

• p-coumaricacid 
• pinocembrin
• pinobanksin
Originate in pollen and propolis

Bees Can Detoxify Pesticides to some extent...
P-coumaric acid turns on detox genes, which make P450 enzymes, which metabolize pesticides

* * *

In depth research explains this:

Analysis revealed a significant change in expression patterns in response to pesticide exposure, including the upregulation of several detoxification genes. 

Through rapid pesticide detoxification, changes to queen physiology and worker retinue may be inhibited, yet this has to be tested to further understand the validity of this connection.

We analyzed the genome-wide expression patterns of the worker honey bee and found changes in detoxification genes, behavioral maturation pathways, and nutrition genes.

We then looked at nutrition in more detail and saw an upregulation of detoxification genes when consuming pollen. We followed this with a survival analysis and found that pollen-fed honey bees have a reduced sensitivity to pesticide exposure.

We showed that pollen upregulates several P450 genes and may serve to protect the honey bee from harmful effects from pesticide exposure. Pollen consumption was shown to improve pesticide tolerance, and despite the need for further investigation, may be linked to a priming mechanism to protect against environmental xenobiotic contamination. 

A mechanism for pesticide resistance in honey bees is vital due to this high degree of exposure and the rate at which pesticides are sequestered in the hive in bee products (Mullin et al. 2010). Previous studies have shown that pesticides interact with detoxification pathways. Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are involved in xenobiotic detoxification

Daniel R. Schmehl (2009) GENOMIC, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSORS ON HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA L.) WORKERS AND QUEENS


  

             ***********************************************
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