Nexus - 1801 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

Bee scientists looking for the cause of CCD have _ one's mental abilities. As it happens, it has recently concentrated on dissecting bees in the hope of finding a been shown that the entire insect kingdom is even more pathogen that they are well familiar with and to which affected by such an internal response to sickness than they can attribute blame for the recent large-scale umans are. In 2003, a peer-reviewed article was disappearance of worker bees. While it is necessary to published, titled "Immune response inhibits associative have a number of investigators looking with a very earning in insects". The authors stated that they had narrow focus for specific viruses, bacteria and parasites discovered “a link between the immune system and the that may be the cause of the problem, it is also. nervous system in insects" and that "an immune necessary to look with unblinkered vision and consider response therefore not only affects survival of the a very wide range of possibilities for causes of CCD. ost...but also everyday behaviour and memory When enquiring about the disappearance of worker ormation".’ Thus it is very clear that if insects have an bees from the beehive, it is important to investigate the | immune response, their cognitive processes such as lifestyle and habits of the bee. In doing so, one quickly | memory formation are adversely affected—meaning that discovers that the bee is a very highly specialised and __ insects can't learn things or remember things when they adapted insect. Bees, like many other creatures, have ave an immune response. Bees, of course, are insects. developed a number of unique and highly complex Is there something new that has not been considered behaviours and abilities that are essential to their — which could be causing an immune response in insects survival. How would an eagle survive if it were blind? — such as bees? Whereas plant breeding has historically How would a bat function focused on producing crops without its radar? Bees have with bigger and better yields, specialised cognitive sbiltics | Having knowledge of the J ise teen introduced into the which are essential for their habits and lifestyle of the recent genetically modified survival: the abilities to bee dramatically changes crops are herbicide resistance remember where a certain - and insect resistance. The f ower i ocated and wnat it our perception of what insect resis ance feature in GM smells like,’ to navigate back to . crops usually comes from the the hive and to calculate how may be causing the bees insertion of a gene for Bacillus far it can fly with the amount of to disappear. thuringiensis, which is a naturally occurring, toxic, soil organism. Just as the captain of a plane The Bt gene in the GM crops calculates how much fuel to produce what are called Cry carry in order to complete a journey, so it is that the bee oxins, which are crystalline protein substances that kill also calculates how much honey fuel to carry to — some insects, like caterpillars, if they eat the GM crop. complete its journey. If the bee encounters unexpected Bees, however, are resistant to Bt Cry toxins and so are head-winds and runs out of honey fuel, the result is not killed by GM Bt crops. Every bee scientist knows similar to if a plane runs out of fuel. The bee can land if hat Bt Cry toxins do not kill bees. it runs out of fuel, but it can no longer complete the Why is it that bees are not killed by the Bt Cry toxins journey back to the hive and it will soon be carried away ound in GM crops? An insect's resistance to Bt Cry by hungry ants. Impairing the specialised cognitive oxins is correlated with its immune response to the Bt processes of bees would be like impairing the Cry toxins. Recent peer-reviewed studies have shown specialised eyesight of eagles. hat “Cry toxin resistance may be induced in Having knowledge of the habits and lifestyle of the invertebrates [insects] as an active immune response".’ bee dramatically changes our perception of what may be For example, in the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia causing the bees to disappear. Part of the problem is — kuehniella, a non-lethal response to Bt Cry toxins and that entomologists who examine bees are always "tolerance [of Bt] correlates with an elevated immune looking specifically for the presence of fungi, viruses or response" to the Bt toxins.* For many creatures, such a bacteria as the cause for CCD. They don't look for an simple non-lethal immune response, which protects the interaction between any pathogen that they discover creature from the Bt toxins, is of little significance. and the specialised lifestyle of the bee that might result However, as described above, an "immune response in indirect mortality to bees. They simply look for — inhibits associative learning in insects",’ and bees are honey fuel it is carrying. something that is directly lethal to bees. insects which are totally dependent upon specialised mental processes, such as navigation skills, for their Immune Response, Cognition and Bt Cry Toxins survival. Thus the immune response that bees have to Have you ever noticed that when you are sick, you the Bt Cry toxins, which gives them resistance to those can't think quite so quickly and clearly? The internal — toxins, may be impairing the mental processes, learning battle that the body is fighting somehow seems to affect and memory of bees. Like a blinded eagle, bees simply Having knowledge of the habits and lifestyle of the bee dramatically changes our perception of what may be causing the bees Immune Response, Cognition and Bt Cry Toxins Have you ever noticed that when you are sick, you can't think quite so quickly and clearly? The internal battle that the body is fighting somehow seems to affect 26 * NEXUS to disappear. DECEMBER 2010 - JANUARY 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com