Publications by authors named "Ivan Pihler"

Dietary supplementation has been proposed as a sustainable way to improve the health and resilience of honey bees (Apis mellifera, L.), as the decline in their numbers in recent decades has raised scientific, environmental, and economic concerns. Spermidine, a natural polyamine, has been shown to be a promising substance for honey bee supplementation, as its health-promoting effects have been demonstrated in numerous studies and in different organisms.

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Article Synopsis
  • Recent research highlights the importance of understanding genetic diversity in honey bee populations due to declines caused by human activities and climate change, focusing specifically on Carniolan honey bees in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
  • The study used advanced genetic analysis methods to distinguish Carniolan honey bees from Italian honey bees and discovered varying levels of genetic mixing and relationships among different populations based on geographic location.
  • Findings suggest that while Carniolan honey bees exhibit genetic homogeneity overall, they possess sufficient genetic diversity within their native range that requires monitoring to support future breeding programs.
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The honey bee (Apis mellifera L.), as an eusocial insect species, is an important model organism in research focusing on ageing and longevity, due to prominent seasonal lifespan plasticity within the worker caste (summer and winter worker bees). In this study, we employed a screening approach to evaluate several molecular parameters, providing comprehensive insights into the antioxidative (superoxide dismutase and catalase activity, reduced glutathione and sulfhydryl group content, total antioxidative capacity), detoxifying (glutathione S-transferase and acetylcholinesterase activity), and immune (phenol oxidase and glucose oxidase activity) status, as well as vitellogenin content, in the summer and winter generation of honey bees, across ageing stages and in two body compartments: the whole abdomen and the head.

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  • Polyamines, including spermidine, play critical roles in cellular functions, and their levels decrease with age, prompting research on PA supplementation and its effects on lifespan.
  • A study on honey bees found that low concentrations of spermidine (0.1 mM) positively impacted lifespan by promoting autophagy and inducing specific epigenetic changes in histones.
  • Results indicated a notable upregulation of genes related to autophagy and epigenetic modifications in the bees’ abdomens, suggesting spermidine may enhance longevity through these biological mechanisms.
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Honey bee health has been an important and ongoing topic in recent years. Honey bee is also an important model organism for aging studies. Polyamines, putrescine, spermidine and spermine, are ubiquitous polycations, involved in a wide range of cellular processes such as cell growth, gene regulation, immunity, and regulation of lifespan.

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This research aimed for the first time to identify the essential welfare problems on 46 goat dairy farms in Vojvodina,based on the goat AWIN welfare protocol. The study showed that space allowance per goat was 1.55, 1.

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The enormous progress in nanomaterials development and their use, followed by their inevitable environmental print, has arisen the emerging questions concerning their influence to the living systems. Honey bees are considered to be quite a suitable model system for the risk assessment and prediction of various external influences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study dealing with the influence of fullerenol nanoparticles (FNP), a biodegradable carbon nanomaterials' representative, to honey bees.

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Two Tsigai sheep populations exist in Serbia: the Old type, called Cokan, and the New type. It is assumed that the New type results from upgrading Tsigai sheep with exotic genetic material. We investigated genetic diversity and differentiation of these types by analysing 23 autosomal microsatellites.

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