TORONTO, May 12, 2023 – With pollinators, like bees, pollinating 87 of 115 leading food crops around the globe, protecting them from further decline is important for humans and ecosystems alike. On World Bee Day, May 20, people’s bee-haviour can go a long way towards providing food and creating and preserving bee habitats. 

91��ɫ’s Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc) and its bee researchers can help better understand bees, the risks to their health and what people can do to help.  

"Bees are one of the most important groups of pollinators in the world, yet most people are unaware that we have at least 350 species in the GTA alone,” says BEEc Co-ordinator Victoria MacPhail, who received her PhD at 91��ɫ and can talk about bees and how to grow a pollinator garden. 

Although most people think of honeybees when they think of bees, there are more than 850 wild bees in Canada and 20,000 worldwide who do much of the pollinating. 

To help celebrate bees, BEEc and the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) are hosting a , sponsored in part by World Wildlife Fund Canada, to help revitalize 91��ɫ’s Native Plant Garden on Tuesday, May 16, from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Media are invited to the event. 

“The EUC Native Plant Garden is an oasis for bees on our campus, providing food, shelter, and nesting sites throughout the year,” says MacPhail. “At BEEc, we have a wealth of free resources and are happy to chat with people about what they can do to help pollinators – from planting native flowers to advocating for increased protections.” 

The community can learn more about the highly diverse bee species indigenous to Toronto and Southern Ontario at large, as well as the local flora that they depend on for sustenance. As a part of this hands-on learning experience, guests will be able to contribute to the University’s floral biodiversity by helping to remove invasive species that are less conducive to the health of local pollinators and planting new native species in the EUC native garden. 

Examples of bee species that visit the garden range from tiny, smooth, black solitary bees that are only a few millimeters long and can be mistaken for flies or ants, to large, fuzzy bumblebees that can be up to a couple centimeters in size, and whose queens are easily seen this time of year. 

“Toronto's official bee, the green metallic sweat bee, Agapostemon virescens, has already been seen nesting in the garden, and we are confident that the upcoming garden party will help to improve the habitat for it and many other wildlife species,” says MacPhail. 

In other bee news, a to help endow a fund for EUC graduate students studying bees will take place May 17 in Markham, followed by a on May 18 with a particular focus on bee diversity and why, and how, 91��ɫ has one of the world's best collections of bee specimens on the planet. 

Have some buzzworthy questions? Just ask the experts listed below. 

, an expert in wild bee genomics, behaviour and conservation and an associate professor in the Faculty of Science, can talk about: 

• Loss of plant-pollinator networks and how some plants will now bloom too soon or too late for bees that rely on them 

• Are the gut microbiomes of city bees missing key beneficial bacteria? 

• Biodiversity conservation and why it’s important 

• How maternal care of bee offspring has expanded the social life of bees 

• Population and behavioural genomics 

• Climate change, land use change and the effects on bees 

Amro Zayed, an associate professor and expert in honeybee biology and genomics in the Faculty of Science, can talk about the following: 

• How bee genes can determine how bees behave, including how good they are at keeping their hive clean and how well they can survive cold winters 

• Did western honeybees originate in Asia and why is that important to know? 

• How the urban environment can help or hinder bees – think concrete versus green spaces, trees and gardens 

• What’s stressing bumblebees? How scientists are using a conservation genomic approach and next generation sequencing to look inside for pathogens and pesticides 

• Why are African hybrid honeybees (known as killer honeybees) highly defensive and aggressive? 

• Bee health diagnostic tools, what they do and what’s being developed 

 
Sheila Colla (via Zoom) of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, co-author of the recent book, and , can discuss the following: 

• What to plant on balconies, in yards and community gardens across Ontario (See ) 

• How bee diversity is important for climate resiliency 

• Connection between native plants and native pollinators 

• Importance of citizen science – how people can help scientists keep track of bees and their habitats 

• What happened to the Rusty-patched bumblebee and why it’s a tale of what could happen to other bees 

• Other bees on the endangered list 

• Beyond honeybees and bumble bees. What are sweat bees, carpenter bees and mining bees, and what role do they play? 

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91��ɫ research may help save rapidly declining bees

TORONTO, February 15, 2019 – The key to breeding disease-resistant honeybees could lie in a group of genes – known for controlling hygienic behaviour – that enable colonies to limit the spread of harmful mites and bacteria, according to genomics research conducted at 91��ɫ.

Some worker honeybees detect and remove sick and dead larvae and pupae from their colonies. This hygienic behaviour, which has a strong genetic component, is known to improve the colony’s chance of survival.

The researchers narrowed in on the “clean” genes that influence this behaviour to understand the evolution of this unique trait.

The finding, published today in the journal , could lead to a new technique for use in selective breeding programs around the world to enhance the health of honeybees.

Researchers looked for areas that differ between the unhygienic bees (left) and hygienic bees (right).

“Social immunity is a really important trait that beekeepers try to select in order to breed healthier colonies,” said Professor , a bee genomics expert in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science. “Instead of spending a lot of time in the field measuring the hygienic behaviour of colonies, we can now try breeding bees with these genetic mutations that predict hygienic behaviour.”

Statistics Canada estimates that honeybee pollination contributes between $3.15 to $4.39 billion per year to the Canadian economy including some of Canada’s most lucrative crops like apples, blueberries and canola. In Canada, and around the world, beekeepers have experienced higher than normal colony losses. Last winter, Canadian beekeepers lost up to 33 per cent of their colonies.

“This study opens the door to using genomics to breed healthier and disease-resistant colonies that have higher social immunity,” explained Zayed. “This is of huge importance to the greater community of geneticists who are interested in understanding the genetics of this novel trait.”

Zayed worked on the study with 13 bee biologists from 91��ɫ, University of British Columbia, University of Manitoba, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

In the study, the biologists sequenced the genomes of three honeybee populations; two of them bred to express highly hygienic behaviour and a third population with typical hygiene. Brock Harpur, Zayed’s former doctoral student who is now an assistant professor at Purdue University’s Department of Entomology, examined the genomes of bees from each of these three populations and looked for areas that differ between the unhygienic��and hygienic bees. Harpur pinpointed at least 73 genes that likely control this hygienic trait.

“Now that we have identified these candidate genes, we can look for the mechanisms of hygienic behavior and begin to develop tools for beekeepers to breed healthier colonies,” explained Harpur.

The biologists are planning to pilot a marker-assisted breeding program for hygienic behaviour, in which bees are selected for breeding based solely on their genetic information.

“We think there is a lot of potential here of breeding disease-resistant colonies with a simple genetic test,” said Zayed.

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Vanessa Thompson, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097,��vthomps@yorku.ca

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The new method could lead to a deeper understanding of how bees communicate location and space through their waggle dance.

TORONTO, Monday, July 16, 2018 – A new food reward test has found that foraging honeybees are better at remembering where to find nectar, than younger nurse bees, and it has to do with behaviour, not age, a study out of 91��ɫ has found. This test could lead to a better understanding of the honeybee’s remarkable ability to learn and communicate spatial information.

Worker honeybees are nurse bees for the first two weeks of life and look after the young brood before becoming foragers in search of pollen and nectar.

“We found that nurses and foragers learn the same, but foragers are able to remember the location of the rewarding flower better than nurses,” said 91��ɫ biology Associate Professor , who led the study with PhD Candidate Nadejda Tsvetkov.

Tsvetkov designed the new test following a suggestion by 91��ɫ psychology Associate Professor , a co-author on the paper, to try a search task paradigm similar to what she uses to study animal behaviour. “As researchers, we often rely on established methods because it takes a long time to develop a new test. But if we have new test, we can come up with new experiments that allow us to answer questions we couldn’t ask before,” said Tsvetkov.

The tests for measuring spatial learning that existed before were not only very cumbersome, they took a long time to perform and it wasn’t possible to test a lot of bees. “The biggest innovation here was the development of this test that allows researchers to quickly study hundreds of bees in a controlled environment to see how they learn about space. It’s pretty low tech, but it’s quick, it’s effective,” said Zayed.

For the study, 236 nurses and foragers were individually put into containers with four artificial flowers (Q-Tips), only one of which had sugar water on it. After establishing that foragers had better recall skills, the researchers decided to see if that was because they were older bees or if it had to do with behaviour.

The researchers also used a drug – cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) – to put young bees into a “forager” state of mind and found that these bees were also better at remembering the location of the rewarding flower. Behaviour was the defining factor in the better memory skills of foragers, not age.

These tests just wouldn’t have been feasible before. “The new test gives us a tool where we can get deeper and deeper knowledge into how bees learn and recall spatial information, and hopefully it opens up understanding of the waggle dance,” says Zayed. “The waggle dance is the ultimate recollection of spatial information for honeybees. They’re dancing the direction and the distance of food resources relative to their colony and the sun.”

Next, the researchers are going to use this test to help understand if there’s a genetic component to how bees learn about space and remember spatial information.

The research was published in the journal .

PHOTO of Food Search Box Assay:

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About 91��ɫ
is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.��

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post New test finds memory of honeybee foragers better than nurse bees, 91��ɫ U appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

TORONTO, Thursday, June 29, 2017 – Worker and queen honeybees exposed to field realistic levels of neonicotinoids die sooner, reducing the health of the entire colony, a new study led by 91��ɫ biologists has found.

The researchers were also surprised to find that the neonicotinoid contaminated pollen collected by the honeybees came not from crops grown from neonicotinoid treated seeds, but plants growing in areas adjacent to those crops.

The role of neonicotinoid insecticides in honeybee colony deaths in Ontario and other parts of North America has been controversial. Some critics dismissed studies that found negative effects on worker behavior and colony health as unrealistic, suggesting bees were exposed to higher doses of pesticides for much longer than realistically found in the field.

Professor Amro Zayed checking out a frame of honeybees from one of his rooftop colonies at 91��ɫ

“This debate about field realistic exposure has been going on for a long time,” said 91��ɫ U biology Professor of the Faculty of Science. “We needed season-long monitoring of neonics in bee colonies to determine the typical exposure scenarios that occur in the field, which we have now done.

The research team studied honey bee colonies in five apiaries close to corn grown from neonicotinoid-treated seeds and six apiaries that were far from agriculture. These colonies were extensively sampled and tested for pesticides from early May to September.

“Honeybee colonies near corn were exposed to neonicotinoids for three to four months. That is most of the active bee season in temperate North America,” said 91��ɫ U PhD student Nadia Tsvetkov.

Worker honeybees in a hive at 91��ɫ

However, the neonicotinoid contaminated pollen the honeybees collected did not belong to corn or soybean plants – the two primary crops grown from neonicotinoid treated seeds in Ontario and Quebec.

“This indicates that neonicotinoids, which are water soluble, spill over from agricultural fields into the surrounding environment, where they are taken up by other plants that are very attractive to bees,” said Tsvetkov.

The researchers then chronically fed colonies with an artificial pollen supplement containing progressively smaller amounts of the most commonly used neonicotinoid in Ontario, clothianidin, over a 12-week period. The experiment mimicked what would occur naturally in the field.

The worker bees exposed to the treated pollen during the first nine days of life had their lifespans cut short by 23 per cent. Colonies that were exposed to treated pollen were unable to maintain a healthy laying queen, and had poor hygiene. “We found that realistic exposure to neonicotinoids near corn fields reduces the health of honey bee colonies,” said Tsvetkov.

Honeybees going in and out of hive at 91��ɫ

While chronic exposure to neonicotinoids has negative effects on honeybees, the researchers also discovered that a commonly used fungicide can interact with neonicotinoids to make them more dangerous.

“The effect of neonicotinoids on honey bees quickly turns from bad to worse when you add the fungicide boscalid to the mix,” said Professor of Laval University who collaborated with the 91��ɫ U team. “The researchers found that field realistic levels of boscalid can make neonicotinoids twice as toxic to honeybees.”

The research, “,” is published today in the journal Science.

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91��ɫ is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097,��sandramc@yorku.ca

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