flexible role: nurse - forager

[Mikiko Murakami]

From rookie to rookie - in case there are other beginners who don't know this. 

Earlier this year, I was able to get 2 colonies with laying workers (queenless for a little over a month) to make emergency queen cells from a frame of brood and get mated queens.  I was curious how this worked since I thought that bees changed roles and graduated from nurse -> forager.

This wouldn't be possible if all the nurse bees became foragers and stayed that way, especially 1+ month after a hive goes queenless.

In a Popular Science article "How It Works: Honeybee Society" there is discussion on how foragers can also revert back to becoming a nurse bee. For decades, scientists have known that bees took on new jobs as they aged, but researchers have now discovered that chemical tags attached to the bees’ DNA play an important role in determining their career paths. Scientists have also discovered this job change is flexible. Workers of any age can nurse or forage!

To dig deeper into the epigenetics --- In a Nature article  "Forager bees (Apis mellifera) highly express immune and detoxification genes in tissues associated with nectar processing"

there is discussion  on the role of epigenetics in turning on/off gene expression when a nurse bee turns into a forager. When honey bees shift from nurse bees to foragers, the bees “turn on” gene expression with products that protect against microorganisms and degrade toxins.

This topic is of particular interest to me, especially in the setting of trying to save laying worker colonies.  I'm sure that there are many factors which change foragers back to nurse bees... a Google rabbit hole for another day.

[Christine Hyung-Oak Lee]

Yep. They can revert back to nurses from foragers if they have to do so. That said, their "quality of care" is said to not be as great under this context, so it's not optimal. But it is definitely amazing.

Christine

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[Catherine Edwards]

"When honey bees shift from nurse bees to foragers, the bees “turn on” gene expression with products that protect against microorganisms and degrade toxins."

This is also quite interesting and amazing. Since foragers leave the collective protection of the nest, their bodies produce products that protect them as individuals and, in the process, protect the colony from microorganisms and toxins they would be exposed to on the outside. 

Catherine Edwards

(510)421-7206

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