> I remain troubled by the focus that has remained on finding feral honey bees and studying their genome ... I think there is great promise in the emerging field of gene editing/manipulation, and deeper understanding of honey bee immunologic pathways (ie the hope of vaccines against foulbrood).
Hi there,
I don't think there is a particular focus on feral bees; I think the spotlight is on the big picture, which includes unmanaged colonies. If unmanaged colonies survive where managed ones don't, we want to ask why? In my view, most feral bees are genetically similar to kept bees, which is logical since they live in proximity to kept bees and came from them at one time.
Granted, there are detectable differences but these may have arisen from genetic drift rather than selection for important traits. Tom Seeley's studies tend to point to low colony density and isolation from other colonies, rather than profound genetic differences. However, the value of such an observation is limited if one wants to be a beekeeper, and not a bee watcher.
If genomics is to have an impact of the keeping of bees, the genetic underpinning of valuable behaviors needs to be identified, and bees need to be bred which have those traits. It's about traits, in any case. Where these traits come from is not the issue, in my mind the key questions are whether they can be identified and if they are linked to negative behaviors like excessive stinging and absconding.
I don't know if you have seen the movie "More Than Honey" but there is a section where we see a beekeeper in Arizona who keeps Africanized bees. He tells us they are not like pet dogs, they are like wolves. But they survive on their own. I am in awe of wolves in their natural habitat, but in my living space -- dogs. All the same, I am curious about the genetics of them all.
Pete
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