A better way to test pollinator-safe pesticides
The global decline in pollinator populations is largely due to harmful pesticides. A more effective molecular approach to evaluating the impact of pesticides on pollinating species can reinvigorate their health.
Healthier pollinator populations are good for all of us
Inspired by recent progress in human medicine, researchers at Queen Mary University of London have devised powerful new molecular approaches for measuring pollinator health. This can help us to avoid approving insecticides that cause harm and subsequently having to ban them.
Resources
Paper
TJ Colgan, AN Arce, RJ Gill, A Ramos Rodrigues, A Kanteh, EJ Duncan, L Li, L Chittka, Y Wurm, in press, Molecular Biology and Evolution
Wild pollinators can adapt to the changing world, but we know little about the underlying processes behind these adaptations. By analysing genomes of bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) collected across Great Britain, we reveal strong signatures of recent genomic changes affecting neurobiology, wing development, and response to xenobiotics, including commonly used insecticides.
Paper
F López-Osorio, Y Wurm, Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2020) 35:380-3
Molecular approaches are a strong alternative for the current insecticide testing practices, offering more sensitive tools for detecting negative impacts of insecticides on pollinator health. Here, we present how such methods can be used for insect health assessments and how their implementation can improve the current agricultural model.
Paper
TJ Colgan, IK Fletcher, AN Arce, RJ Gill, A Ramos Rodrigues, E Stolle, L Chittka, Y Wurm, Molecular Ecology (2019) 28: 1964–74
Insecticides negatively affect multiple aspects of insect biology, but the specific molecular processes underlying these changes are largely unknown. After exposing colonies of bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) to two neonicotinoid insecticides, Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, we unravel that both insecticides impact the activity of different genes. We also show that bumble bee queens and workers are differentially affected by both compounds.
Paper
AN Arce, A Ramos Rodrigues, J Yu, TJ Colgan, Y Wurm, RJ Gill, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2018) 285:20180655
Farmers treat plants with insecticides to protect them from unwanted attacks from pest insects. Unfortunately, other insect species are often exposed to residuals of these compounds. Here, we show that foraging bumble bees can acquire preference for food containing traces of insecticides, indicating that the risk of exposure to traces of harmful insecticides in nature may increase over time.
Paper
A Witwicka, F López-Osorio, V Patterson, Y Wurm, Molecular Ecology
Commonly used insecticides target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) present in the insect nervous system. Importantly, such receptors are complex structures composed out of 5 individual proteins. Insect genomes usually code for 10-15 of these proteins allowing for a great diversity of nAChR receptors, each with different functions and affinity to insecticides. Here, we show that expression of nAChR components varies between tissues, castes, and developmental stages of two social bee species, Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris, potentially explaining why insecticides cause different effects between and within species.
