Experts Tackle Development of CRISPR Honey Bees

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are more than just the producers of honey; they are also scientifically essential model organisms. Thus, researchers are exploring using CRISPR gene editing to understand honey bee behavior, determination of breeds and subspecies, and combating diseases and pests, and their findings have been favorable. Researchers from the Akdeniz University in Turkey summarized these studies and presented them at the International Agricultural, Biological, and Life Science Conference held in September 2023 in Edirne, Turkey.

According to the conference paper, CRISPR was first used in honey bees in 2016. As reported in Zoological Science, a simple gene editing protocol was performed, targeting various genes at a time. However, the gene editing efficiency was only 40%. Another team reported in G3 about using CRISPR in honey bees in 2019, and the efficiency increased to 70%.

Recent studies on CRISPR honey bees target the sensory receptor genes. A study published in Chemical Senses reported that measurable behavioral changes were attained in honey bees using nonsense mutations. When the researchers created nonsense mutations in the AmGr3 gene in worker bee eggs using CRISPR-Cas9, the resulting mutants showed a loss of response to fructose but had normal responses to sucrose.

Read more findings from the conference paper.