Beekeeping – From Science to Practice by Russell H. Vreeland & Diana Sammataro

Author:Russell H. Vreeland & Diana Sammataro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

10 Uses for Other Honey Bee Cell Culture Systems

10.1 Honey Bee Cells for Toxicology Studies

The AmE-711 cell line was isolated from undifferentiated embryonic tissues. Other honey bee cell lines composed of specific cell types would be useful for research directed at specific tissues. For example, if we had a cell line derived from nervous tissue (i.e., a neuron-derived culture system), we could apply it to study the effects of environmental pesticides on the nervous system of honey bees. Neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides that act much like nicotine in the human brain by overstimulating neurons, are considered to be a contributing factor to honey bee decline. These insecticides are applied to crops and ornamental plants for the control of pest species. At high doses, neonicotinoids cause death and paralysis in insects. Honey bees are not the intended targets of neonicotinoid applications but may be exposed during foraging for pollen and nectar on treated plants or plants contaminated from spray drift. Honey bee foragers exposed to sublethal doses of neonicotinoids exhibit behaviors that suggest a disruption of motor and cognitive functioning ​(Blacquière et al. 2012). Exposing honey bee neuronal cells to different doses of neonicotinoids would make it possible to more thoroughly characterize the molecular mechanisms responsible for this intoxication-like state in exposed foragers (Blacquière et al. 2012). Moreover, information on the interaction of neonicotinoid toxins with receptors on neurons that respond to these toxins could be used to develop pesticides with greater efficacy/specificity against target insects while posing minimal risk to bees and other beneficial insects. For example, molecular techniques could be used to modify existing, or create novel, toxins that have high binding affinity with receptors of the pest insect but low to no binding affinity with the honey bee. This binding specificity could be tested using neuronal cells from the honey bee and from the pest species, where changes in cell viability are measured as a response to exposure to the toxin. It is unfortunate that there are no insect neuronal cell lines. However, this does not preclude the use of primary cultures containing honey bee neurons toward answering tissue-specific questions about the honey bee nervous system.

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