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Scientists found the missing nutrients bees need — Colonies grew 15-fold
Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers provided bees with a nutritionally complete diet that boosted reproduction up to 15-fold. Unlike commercial substitutes that lack key nutrients, this supplement mimics natural pollen’s sterol profile, giving bees the equivalent of a balanced diet.
Severe declines -- caused by a combination of nutrient deficiencies, climate change, mite infestations, viral diseases, and pesticide exposure -- poses a significant threat to food security and biodiversity. This breakthrough discovery of key phytonutrients that, when included in feed supplements, allow sustained honey bee brood rearing has immense potential to improve outcomes for colony survival, and in turn the beekeeping businesses we rely on for our food production." Elynor Moore, Raquel T. de Sousa, Stella Felsinger, Jonathan A. Arnesen, Jane D. Dyekjær, Dudley I. Farman, Rui F. S. Gonçalves, Philip C. Stevenson, Irina Borodina, Geraldine A. Wright.
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