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> Obviously, Apis cerana has some form of
defense that it uses against the varroa. Perhaps this could be
transferred to Apis mellifera?
Apis cerana drills a hole in the cap of drone cells. If they detect varroa, they haul the pupa out and dispose of it. All GM 'products' currently available are simple insertions of a very small number (usually one) of genes. To transpose such a behaviour from one species to another is, for now, truly beyond our ability, since it almost certainly involves a large number of genes. Maybe in a million years Apis mellifera will evolutionarily 'learn' to do this too. Maybe we can speed it up by selection. Maybe we can select for a different defense, maybe our bees will evolve a novel defense. I don't think we'll be able to 'engineer' them to.
Martin Damus
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