>" However, bee bread is acidic with little moisture, and is doused with the antimicrobial chemical propolis."

 

Turns out, this sentence does not show up in the research itself, but is from the Science Daily summary write-up:

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240521124403.htm

 

The Research itself (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.10918) does make reference to propolis, noting in part that:

 

‘Certain aspects of hive conditions and the food sources themselves, however, are generally inhospitable to microbes. Environmental and competitive stress factors in corbicular pollen-masses and bee bread make widespread fungal growth unlikely. Adverse abiotic properties include low water potential (i.e., xeric substrate), low pH, the presence of propolis, and the competitive pressure and secondary metabolites resulting from the abundance of acidophilic bacteria (Anderson et al., 2014).’

 

Reading back through the research, I believe this is an unfortunate example of conflation by the editor - as while the research specifically looks at the effect of propolis on fungi, it does not appear to support the idea of propolis in bee bread:

 

‘The overall results of the bioassays for the effects of propolis, pH, and matric potential are consistent with the hypothesis that the bee-associated strains AFBB and AFPA, relative to the free-living AF36 strain, display traits concordant with adaptation to the most distinctive abiotic characteristics of the beehive environment.’

 

‘While the reduced growth of AF36 in the presence of even low concentrations of propolis is consistent with its fungistatic properties, the two bee colony strains responded to stress conditions differently. Strain AFBB showed significant tolerance for propolis in two different media, whereas AFPA displayed signs of tolerance in bioassays only on agarose. Either strain might encounter propolis via direct contact with the walls of the comb or via transfer from adult bees.’ 


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