>Can anyone offer some perspective on this study?   Social apoptosis in
honey bee superorganisms. Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 27210 DOI:
10.1038/srep27210

IMHO, this was a brilliant piece of research, and as the authors state:
"Altruistic suicide of immature
bees constitutes a social analogue of apoptosis, as it prevents the spread
of infections by sacrificing
parts of the whole organism."

I've long suggested that an easy way to control varroa would be to infect
it with a virus that immediately killed bee pupae.  No emerging pupae, no
varroa reproduction.  End of problem.

The findings help to explain the apparent better resistance of *A ceranae*
to viruses than *A mellifera* (see Dietemann's recent paper in JAR).  The
pupae simply die if wounded by a mite (and likely similarly if infected by
a virus).  This then allows a host-parasite relationship to be established
between the mite and the bees.

I suspect that we could breed bees whose pupae most effectively send out a
signal, in the form of a change in cuticular hydrocarbon odor, that tell
the nurses to remove them if they lose the ability to contain a virus
infection.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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