INRA, UR 406 Abeilles et Environnement, 84914, Avignon, France.
Published: January 2019
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Recent experimental and in-field evidence of the deleterious effects of insecticides on the domestic honey bee Apis mellifera have led to a tightening of the risk assessment requirements of these products, and now more attention is being paid to their sublethal effects on other bee species. In addition to traditional tests, in vitro and in silico approaches may become essential tools for a comprehensive understanding of the impact of insecticides on bee species. Here we present a study in which electrophysiology and a Markovian multi-state modelling of the voltage-gated sodium channel were used to measure the susceptibility of the antennal lobe neurons from Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris, to the pyrethroids tetramethrin and esfenvalerate. Voltage-gated sodium channels from Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris are differentially sensitive to pyrethroids. In both bee species, the level of neuronal activity played an important role in their relative sensitivity to pyrethroids. This work supports the notion that honey bees cannot unequivocally be considered as a surrogate for other bee species in assessing their neuronal susceptibility to insecticides.
Due to the increase in data rate in mobile communication and the widespread use of mobile internet, electromagnetic communication systems are increasing daily. This situation causes increases in the use of more mobile communication devices and environmental non-ionizing Electromagnetic Field (EMF) levels. The rise of bee deaths and colony losses in beekeeping parallel to the increase of the EMF sources cause the concept of "electromagnetic pollution" to be considered among the reasons.
Sociedad Latinoamericana de Investigación en Abejas (SoLatInA), Montevideo, Uruguay; Laboratorio de Microbiología y Salud de las Abejas, Departamento de Microbiología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (IIBCE), Avda. Italia 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay; Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales (CICA), Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (IIBCE), Avda. Italia 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay. Electronic address:
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Stingless bee honey is a natural product consisting of sugars, organic acids, proteins, minerals, vitamins, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids. Due to its healing properties, honey is often used in phytotherapy and for homemade syrups. The search for natural therapeutic alternatives has been an increasing trend in recent years, mainly due to the side effects of artificial drugs and increasing antibiotic resistance.
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