Bee-ing Busy Pollinating For Us

When I first started iGEM I thought that the bees' only purpose was to strike fear into the heart of all humans and stab us with their butt swords. I have since learned that they are an important link in the agricultural industry by: giving us honey, beeswax, and feeding us. They help feed us through pollinating other plants, spreading seeds across fields, and helping our plants survive. For such a small little guy, they really do so much for us and are completely disregarded in that. So welcome to the Ted Talk of Brittany Sauter as I embark upon telling you about how amazing and incredible these little critters are — while I try not to panic due to my huge phobia of bees.

Pollination is not an abstract topic to us. Just recently, when visiting St. Luke's Catholic School, the grade 4 class was talking about pollination, plants, and of course the bee. The bee, in all its majestic form, goes to the plant to collect nectar and, just by chance in the process of getting that nectar, it gets pollen (the seed) on its hind legs (1). Since the bee is a hungry guy, it wants more nectar but not from the same plant. So, it flies away to a new plant to get nectar. In that process of leaving the first plant, flying around randomly, landing on the second plant and getting more nectar; it has pollinated (1). Which is pretty cool, if you ask me!

This entire process of the plant and the bee working together is called co-evolution, which is pretty common. Co-evolution is when two or more species affect each other's evolution, either aiding it or negatively affecting it. In this case, the bees' and flowers' relationship serves as an example of positive co-evolution (2). Now you might be wondering, "How did they co-evolve?" It's simply done by a series of adaptations and specializations. It is a constant rotation between flowers adapting to bees and bees adapting to flowers, which is something that even Darwin noticed. It turns out bees are attracted to plants with bilateral symmetry, the colours blue and yellow, and at manipulating flower parts. Since the plant wants to be pollinated by bees, the plant has selective pressures to favour those adaptations. Flowers influence bees by wanting them to have hairy back legs, a specific body type, and effective pollination. In turn, the bee also has selective pressures favouring those adaptations. This is a cycle, with the two constantly influencing each other to be preferred (3). 

Honey bees are quite adaptive since they are able to collect pollen from multiple plants and most of their life is spent collecting pollen, making them super important guys (4). This beneficial relationship between bees and flowers feeds us so without them, life would be not so gouda.

I know right? Pollination is awesome. These two have basically evolved together to feed themselves, help the plant, and we take that to our advantage. So besides bees, what are  other ways that pollination happens? Pollination is the act of pollen being moved from the male part (the anther) to the female part (the stigma) of the plant. In summary, pollination is the act of making the next generation of plants; however, the seeds that go to the stigma must be that of the same species. How pollen moves is by a vector, or pollinators, the most common being bees. Other vectors include the wind, water, birds, various insects, bats, and other animals that even graze by flowers. Using pollinators is a method called cross-pollination; however, there is another type called self-pollination where the plant just fertilizes itself (5).



So then, why are bees going extinct if they are co-evolving with plants and helping each other? The answers to that are simple: climate change, insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides. Since these are constantly being sprayed on our agriculture plants, they are affecting the bees' stress levels. Moreover, if one type of pollinator is stressed, the other pollinators could also be affected. 

You are probably thinking, "Well maybe only spray the crops with herbicides since the bees are not a plant?" However, the answer isn't that simple. Our research is dealing with an intraparasite called Nosema ceranae and if the bee has an overly high level of this intraparasite and then comes into contact with areas sprayed with herbicides, the herbicides make the bees more susceptible to these toxins and eventually kill them. If you spray the area with insecticides, this will most certainly damage the bees since they are an insect and pesticides harm them (6).



This figure shows the percent of bees dying with either spraying the crops with 0.1% (the recommended amount) of a surfactant called "Boost" or 0.01% of it. Surfactants are chemicals used in herbicides, insecticides, and fungicide sprays (7). If the same chemicals are being used in both herbicides and insecticides then we can't only use herbicides. Like I said above, the answer is not that simple... or is it? We could just stop spraying our crops with damaging chemicals that affect not only the pollinators, wildlife, but also people who are spraying the chemicals on these crops. But that is probably another Brittany Sauter "Ted Talk" to look at in the future.



So there we have it folks, the Brittany Sauter "Ted Talk" on pollination and the bees. We have officially come full circle on how not only bees and plants have co-evolved, but also what is affecting the bees in their efforts to pollinate and influences on them. I hope this was informative to us all and that you look forward to our future blog postings.

References

1. https://bees.techno-science.ca/english/bees/pollination/default.php
2. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nature.com/subjects/coevolution&sa=D&ust=1561328203384000&usg=AFQjCNFD1QlokC0pH0Y9TRgtXbZt6TF6Eg
3. https://www.wnps.org/blog/coevolution-and-pollination
4. https://www.otago.ac.nz/genetics/otago038359.pdf
5. https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/What_is_Pollination/
6. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/bee-deaths-FS.pdf
7. Effect of surfactants on honey bee survival. N Z Plant Prot - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Honey-bee-mortality-when-sprayed-with-different-amounts-of-two-concentrations-of_fig1_264839364

- Brittany A. S.

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To Fear or Not To Fear: The Truth About GMOs in Canada

One of the first questions I ever answered when I started iGEM was "You're working with GMOs! Is that safe?" At the time, I was fourteen and naive so I responded the same way I would for years: "Yes of course it's safe! Everyone working with GMOs has the best interest of the public in mind and, on top of that, the government regulates GMOs and makes sure we are safe." But after six years, I finally did my own research, and while I still believe that the first part of my response is true, I know that the second part is a lie.

For the past few weeks, the UAlberta iGEM team has been conducting research to develop a policy paper about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Canada. This policy paper seeks to understand GMO regulations in Canada and — from the perspective of an iGEM team — make recommendations for how regulations, public education, and government action can change surrounding the use of GMOs to allow for scientific development while best serving the public. In all honesty, what I have learned so far has shook me to the very core.

I now believe that the Canadian Government's GMO regulations verge on negligence and their process of approval demonstrates a lack of transparency that lends itself to corruption. 

But before I get into all that, let's talk about the history of GMOs in Canada and how Canada approves GMOs for usage.

In 1995, the Canadian government approved the first GMO crops for planting in Canada. Since then, Canada has become the third largest producer of GMO crops in the world and the Canadian government has approved over 85 GMOs, including canola, apples, and even salmon. In 2001, the Expert Panel on the Future of Food Biotechnology released a report which criticized the process through which the Canadian government approves GMOs, and gave 53 recommendations for improvement. Of these 53 recommendations, only two have been addressed in the 18 years since.

So how does this highly criticized approval process take place? Well, first of all, a food must be deemed novel; "a [n]ovel food... is defined as products that ha[ve] never been used as a food." Once deemed novel, regulatory action is triggered and the company producing the GMO must then apply to the government for approval. As the Canadian government does not do its own testing on GMO products, it is up to the company to provide the government with the science and testing behind their own products. This research and the report provided is not regulated by the government. Following this submission, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency then go through the process of evaluating and then either approving or rejecting the GMO product for use. The Canadian public is given a short write-up about why the government approved this product or not, but otherwise this entire process takes place behind closed doors. It is also government policy to not give the public or researchers access to the research the company did into their own product.

According to the government of Canada, this is an "extremely rigorous" approval method that is based on complex scientific research. But as "some scholars... [have] note[d]... Canada generally espouses a permissive attitude towards GMOs," and I for one have to agree. Not only is this system a bureaucratic mess, but it is also not one that is going to protect our people, society, economy, or planet.

So what are some of the issues regarding GMO regulations in Canada?

1. Self Testing and Reporting

Health Canada says that it allows for companies to conduct their own testing on GMO products because:

However, there is a multitude of issues with this process. First of all, the Canadian government does not release any of the testing or reports that are provided by the companies about their products to the public or other researchers. This lack of transparency also means that a key part of the scientific method is missing: peer review. moreover, it limits the public — who should control the government — from criticizing the choices of the government, or from just generally being informed about what they are eating. This transparency also limits the press' ability to act as a check/balance and question the government's choices while keeping the public informed. As Health Canada also mentions, companies spend millions of dollars conducting their own testing and providing the government with proof that their product is safe. This system may work for massive companies such as Monsantos, but it makes this system of approval impossible to navigate for smaller biotech companies. This essentially creates a virtual monopoly on seeds and thus food production in Canada. Finally, while the government does review this research prior to approval, allowing a company to report its own findings on its own products means there is room for companies to lie, misinterpret, or be untruthful about their findings.

Canada has allowed for products to be tested by the very companies that are selling them, leading to a litany of issues. This is negligence.

2. GMO Food Labeling

When surveyed, 80% of Canadians said that they wanted GMO food to be labelled. For nearly two decades, however, the Canadian government has failed to give the Canadian people what they want and GMO food remains unlabeled. While I know that this labeling system would not change my consumption of GMOs, people deserve to know what they are eating as some people may simply not want to consume GMOs due to religious, ethical, environmental, or personal reasons. People also deserve to shop without the fear that they may be consuming something they don't want to. Simply put, people have every right to know what they are eating.

If GMO labeling seems ridiculous to you just think about this: the Canadian government requires companies to state that water is in their products but does not require companies to say if it is selling a product with altered genes from other organisms.

Furthermore, the Canadian government's lack of regulation around labeling means that any company can lie about being GMO-free, which has lead to people being lied to for profit.

When it comes to GMO labeling, the government has chosen to ignore their citizens and side with companies. This is corruption.

3. Recommendations for Change

As previously mentioned, in 2001 the Expert Panel on the Future of Food Biotechnology released a report which criticized the process through which the Canadian government approves GMOs. The panel gave 53 recommendations for improvement, but in the last 18 years only two (that's right, two) of those recommendations have been implemented. The government does not have much to say about why they have chosen to ignore these recommendations and keep a highly flawed system, but it is the choice that they have made.

Ignoring a government panel's suggestions for nearly two decades demonstrates a lack of care on behalf of the Canadian government. Again, this is negligence.

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled programming to bring you this fun gif!

4. Abusing the Environment

Like with most things we do as a society, GMOs have been used in a way that negatively affects the environment. A few ways that the environment is harmed by the use of GMOs is firstly through the creation of mono cultures. Mono cultures are when only one crop is grown for miles. This eliminates biodiversity, leading to the death of animals and insects who lose their food source and habitat.

The second way is through an increased use of pesticides and herbicides, where herbicide use has increased 130% since GMOs were introduced. This is bad as it has an adverse effect on plants, animals, and humans in the surrounding areas. Moreover, the usage of GMOs has reduced the dependency on local produce, which can be a good thing for food stability but is harmful as it decreases food variety and crushes local farming industries who do not want to use GMO crops.

Finally, the extent of the harm GMOs will have on the environment is unknown, because the government of Canada has done no long-term studies to see the effects GMOs will have on the environment.

In fact, all of this is happening because the government of Canada does not study how GMO crops will impact the environment, society, or the economy. That is negligence. And if they are placing company interests over the people, that is corruption.

5. Modern Usages of SynBio

The limited regulations that exist in Canada concerning GMOs are focused on food-related GMOs and nothing more; these regulations are very outdated. The heavy emphasis on food GMOs is demonstrated in a multitude of ways: first of all, the departments that approve GMOs are Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which are not GMO-specific departments as they focus on food, not GMO crops. 

The second way this is shown is through the Canadian government's website on GMOs and the laws that govern GMOs, as they only speak about GMO crops and foods. This is a massive problem because it leaves those who are developing GMOs for non-food-related usage — such as water quality testing, the development of a new fluorescent protein, or even a treatment for Nosema — have no idea how they are regulated or if they are even regulated at all.

Canada's understanding of GMOs are also very outdated. By reading over their policies, debates, regulations, and interactions with companies, it becomes clear that the Canadian government is stuck in the early 2000s. Their biggest concerns are GMO foods and crops, and competitions like iGEM are not even on their radar. They even believe that they are at the forefront of GMOs by depending on large companies like Monsantos and not investing in smaller biotech companies or education programs for new scientists. They also show their old views by not regulating GMOs, not evaluating their safety, and not evaluating their social or economic impacts. It shows that they don't recognize the massive changes in GMO technology that has taken place in the last 20 years, which have made it an extremely powerful tool that can be used to do amazing things — like develop insulin — but also very bad things like environmental and economic destruction.

This is stupidity.

Long story short, Canada does not regulate GMOs properly and that's not a good thing, but that's not the fault of GMOs or the scientists who work with them. With proper regulations, GMOs can do amazing work! They can help to feed millions, develop affordable and safe vaccines, make insulin, and create detection systems for mercury in water. But, we need proper regulations to make people comfortable and make sure that people are safe, we also need regulations to stop one's company from getting control of GMOs, seeds, and crops in Canada.

GMOs are amazing they changed the world and they will continue to change the world, but regulations are needed to make sure the people and the planet are safe.

- Talia D.

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A Bee-utiful Look Into Basic Bee Neuroanatomy

no one:

absolutely no one:                          

me: LeT's LeArN aBoUt bEe BrAiNs
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What up y'all, Ron here. I figured that I'll do something slightly different for this blog post and teach you guys a lil' something about bee neuroscience!



Because, well, why not? Besides, I figured that it would be interesting to look into (me being a neuro kid and all) so, hey, this could be a learning experience for all of us here!

The importance of antennae

Honey bee antennae are very sensitive organs that deal with a lot of information, including:
- olfaction (smell)
- somatosensation (touch)
- gustation (taste), and
- air motion (for flight speed)
Since these organs are very sensitive, bees have to frequently clean them using their front legs to keep them in tiptop shape (4).


Holy heck aren't they adoooooooooooooorable??

Olfaction

A bee's sense of smell is particularly important both on a colonial as well as on an individual level. As an example, bees release an odor called the "alarm pheromone" if they sense danger, letting other bees know of the danger and allowing them all to prepare accordingly. Bees can also use their sense of smell to locate sources of nectar and find their way back to their hives. In fact, if a bee shows up to the hive without having the correct odor, the guard bees at the front of the hive will even expel them! (4)


A bee preventing an invader from entering the hive (1967, colourized).

Somatosensation

Bees also have a well-developed sense of touch, extending from their antennae to all of the tiny tactile hairs throughout their body (3). Through their sense of touch, bees can gauge the physical dimensions of an object, such as a honeycomb (4). Bees can also use their sense of touch to communicate with other bees as is the case of their adorable waggle dancing, which is how bees share information about flower patches for potential nectar sources.

One of the first recordings of a bee communicating a nectar source to other bees (1564, colourized).

Vision

Bees have two kinds of eyes: their three small ocelli (singular ocellus) and their two big compound eyes. The ocelli are simple eyes with single lenses that help the bee navigate by judging light intensity, allowing them to stay properly oriented in flight (5, 6). Their compound eyes, meanwhile contain thousands of smaller eyes called ommatidia (singular ommatidium) that form thousands of images that are then integrated by their brain to form a cohesive picture of their surroundings (6). If you want to know more about bee vision specifically, this article goes into much greater detail.

The central nervous system of a honey bee

The central nervous system (CNS) of any organism is widely regarded as its most important organ system because it takes in information from the organism's environment and allows the organism to respond accordingly.

While the human CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord, the CNS of a honey bee consists of the brain and various ganglia (singular ganglion; a cluster of neuronal cell bodies in the periphery) distributed throughout its body (2). The honey bee brain integrates the processing of its senses, whereas its ganglia mediate locomotion and other autonomic unconscious processes. As an example to see how these work together, a beheaded bee would be able to walk and move its legs around, but it would be unable to fly as it has no head to process balance and coordinate flight (2)!

The bee brain

Despite being no bigger than a sesame seed and only having about 1 million neurons (compared to the 100 billion neurons that we humans possess), the brain of a bee is highly structured and highly specialized. Sensory information from the antenna is received by the antennal lobe (AL) of the bee brain, while visual information is mediated by the medulla (ME), lobula (LO), and protocerebral lobes (PL), as shown below (7).

All of this sensory information is then sent to a highly dense and highly specialized pair of neuronal cell body clusters called the mushroom bodies (MB). The MBs act as an association area and take in various sensory information to interpret them for higher-order processing (1). In doing so, the MBs allow the honey bee to learn all about its environment, act upon the sensory stimuli immediately, and then use it for the future. In one study, bees have even been shown to remember a visual stimulus and see if it matches a new visual stimulus, indicating that bees have the capacity for visual memory and for more complex decision making (8).

A bee undergoing rigorous scientific experimentation (1945, colourized).

All in all, in case you haven't caught on yet, bees are rad as heCK. This blog post baaaaaaaaarely scratches the surface and I still have a lot to learn myself about bee anatomy (potential allusion to future posts by me, question mark?). If you need something else to satisfy your bee anatomy fix in the meantime, here's a rad video on how bees see the world around them! 

References

1. Barron AB, Gurney KN, Meah LFS, Vasilaki E, Marshall JAR. Decision-making and action selection in insects: inspiration from vertebrate-based theories. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9, 2015.
2. Calvert C. Nervous system of honey bee [Online]. LinkedIn SlideShare: 2014.
3. Foden S. How Do Honey Bees Smell, Feel and Taste? [Online]. Animals: 2017.
4. Information Sheet 6 [Online]. Information Sheet 6, Honey Bee Senses. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona.
5. Paulk AC, Dacks AM, Phillips-Portillo J, Fellous JM, Gronenburg W. Visual processing in the central bee brain. Journal of Neuroscience 29: 9987-9999, 2009.
6. Riddle S. How Bees See and Why It Matters [Online]. Bee Culture 2016.
7. Rybak J. The digital honey bee brain atlas. Honeybee Neurobiology and Behavior, 2011.
8. Zhang S, Bock F, Si A, Tautz J, Srinivasan MV. Visual working memory in decision-making by honey bees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 102: 5250-5255, 2005.

- Ron Miguel B.

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Smoked Out: What Effect Are Alberta's Wildfires Having On Bees?

With enough smoke in Edmonton to make our lungs burn and our eyes water, you might be wondering what effect the smoke is having on our bees. And if you weren't, well maybe you should be.

The UAlberta iGEM team is working on a Nosema biosensor to diagnose the infection in our precious little honey bees. While Nosema has us worrying 24/7 these days, for the past few days we were also a bit worried about the fire affecting our bees. 

So, I took it upon myself to take a deep dive into figuring out how bad it looks and how bad it actually might be.


Where are we at?

At the time of writing this post, the province of Alberta, which makes 40% of Canada's honey, has burnt through over 577,341.90 hectares of forests. Just to put that into perspective, that is about nine Edmontons. Wildfires are, by their very nature, very uncontrollable and a significant pollutant of our fresh Rockies' air. Blame them for ruining all the nice BBQ trips you had planned for this summer.


So how bad is it for our bees?



While our bees are one of the most resilient bugs around, they might not survive the nuclear apocalypse (like those cockroaches) but they sure can persevere through the testing times that Alberta is facing.

The main threat to our bees from the wildfire is the billowing smoke covering our clear blue skies. The smoke makes it difficult for our bees to fly safely, and it prevents our bees from following the scents of their foraging sites. The air pollutants, according to researchers in Penn State, interact with the plant hydrocarbons to break down the odours. Therefore, the bees struggle to find their foraging sites. The main air pollutant affecting the plant odours is ozone. The team at Penn State realized that the changes in air chemistry impacted the number of bees able to detect food sources in a given time frame. In an ozone-free environment, it took 10 minutes for 20 percent of the foraging bees to find a scent molecule named beta-caryophyllene. When ozone rose to only 20 parts per billion, it took 180 minutes for the same amount of bees to find the scent. The team fond similar results for the six different scent molecules. Basically, our bees are having a hard time sniffing around to make our honey in this smoke.

So what happens to our bees in the wildfire?

Well, most of the bees in our dense forests are filled with mining bees. They are a species of bees that live in tunnels underground Almost 70% of the world bee species live in underground nests. They are harmless to humans and do not produce any honey, so they do not get as much attention as other bees. However, they are still an essential part of our natural pollination infrastructure. A study jointly performed by Utah State and Central Texas Melittological Institute has determined that the heat stress these mining bees experience is survivable. 

The wood and twig-nesting bees, however, are not as successful with their zoning laws. Almost all of them get killed in the massive wildfires we are experiencing as they make their nests in flammable plant fibers. Although these bees are low in their quantity in our dense forests, they are also the main pollinators and the most active bees in these forests. Their loss would significantly slow down the recovery of our natural green space.



Should we panic?

We shouldn't panic about any of our problems if we are looking to find solutions. The good thing for us, however, is that the bees themselves are looking out for us. Oregon State University conducted an extensive 2-year study in the aftermath of the 2013 Douglas Complex fire in southern Oregon. Their bee trapping in high-severity sites showed a large increase in bee biodiversity and population compared to low-severity sites. This led them to conclude that the Earth's pollinators are also nature's phoenix and have not let us down even in our most testing times. The increase in bee population after the wildfires is part of the rebuilding phase, where the bees are pollinating the recovery of the forests and contributing to reclaiming the land.

While the wildfires can cause large-scale destruction and death, these bees give us hope. With the loss of their lives and their livelihood, they are back at it again - rebuilding their homes and lives. We should do our best to make sure our wildfires do not cause irrecoverable damage to these bees.

The small things we can do for our bees in the meantime, wild or otherwise, are:If you see a bee s

• If you see a bee struggling, offer it some clean water to refresh them. Also, wait for the haze to clear before releasing them.
• Consider late Fall feeding for the bees as they might be digging into their winter stores.
• The bees will do their part but we can do ours as well by planting a few trees and remembering the hard work our bees do every day.

- Abbas M.
References

1. http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/canadian-agri-food-sector-intelligence/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-honey-and-bee-industry-and-the-economic-contribution-of-honey-bee-pollination-2016/?id=1510864970935#a1.9
2. https://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/sitrep.html
3. McFrederick, Q.S., Kathilankal, J.C., & Fuentes, J.D. (2008). Air pollution modifies floral scent trails. Atmospheric Environment, 42(10), 2336-2348.
4. Della Sala, D.A., & Hanson, C.T. (2015). The ecological importance of mixed-severity fires: nature's phoenix. Elsevier.
5. Cane, J.H., & Neff, J.L. (2011). Predicted fates of ground-nesting bees in soil heated by wildfire: Thermal tolerances of life stages and a survey of nesting depths. Biological Conservation, 144(11), 2631-2636.

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