Researchers
say they have unlocked the genetic secrets of honey bees' high sensitivity to
environmental change.
Scientists
from the UK and Australia think their findings could help show links between
nutrition, environment and the insects' development.
It
could, they suggest, offer an insight into problems like Colony Collapse
Disorder, a mysterious cause of mass bee deaths globally.
The
findings appear
in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
"Honey
bees live in complex societies comprising tens of thousands of
individuals," explained study co-author Paul Hurd from Queen Mary,
University of London.
"Most
of these are female 'worker' honeybees that are unable to reproduce and instead
devote their short lives to finding food in flowers... and other tasks such as
nursing larvae inside the hive."
But
the hive has a queen as well - the much longer-lived, reproductive head of the
hive,
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