>
> >I am still baffled why one would need a specific ds intermediate, as you
> describe Randy, when the honeybee does not display adaptive immunity?
> (certainly there is no antibody production) I would think that any old
> "long dsRNA molecule" would do to incite the innate response.


Scott, you are correct that insects do not produce antibodies, but that
does not mean that they do not display adaptive immunity (which they have
been shown to do for at least viruses and bacteria).

Flenniken surprised us by discovering that "any old long dsRNA molecule"
would initiate a response.  However, the RISC response utilizes snippets of
invading virus RNA sequences to target that specific virus.

Maori has shown that bees can then confer adaptive immunity to their
descendants by endogenizing some of those snippets.

And Salmela showed how bees can transfer adaptive immunity to bacteria to
the next generation via Vg.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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