RNA interference helps fight bee-killing mites
Can the world’s most important pollinators be saved? Scientists and breeders are trying to create a hardier honeybee.
Most have concluded colony collapse is not a single problem, as first thought, but a lethal amalgamation of pests, pathogens, habitat loss, and toxic chemicals; varroa mites are a critical component. Most large-scale beekeepers now use pesticides to kill the mites—a stopgap solution, at best.
A different, potentially nontoxic treatment could be the use of RNAi (the last letter stands for “interference”). In RNA interference, cells are targeted with a substance designed to attack a specific variant of RNA. Crippling that RNA snaps the link between a gene and its protein. Bees would be fed sugar water containing RNAi, which disables mite RNA. In theory the altered sugar water should not affect the bee. But when mites drink the bees’ hemolymph, the mites will also take in RNAi—and it should affect them.
According to Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota, the problem with RNAi is that it is still a single-purpose tool. “If you target one specific area,” she argues, “the organism will always make an end run around it.” Staving off the beepocalypse, in her view, ultimately requires a “healthier, stronger” honeybee, one that can fight mites and disease on its own, without human assistance.
