* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Friday, May 30, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Receives Expected Nasdaq Notice Regarding Delayed Quarterly Report – Business Wire

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed Quarterly Report

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Aziz Ansari made Keanu Reeves Indian food so he wouldn’t feel ‘freaked out’ directing him in Good Fortune (exclusive) – Entertainment Weekly

    Aziz Ansari Whips Up Indian Cuisine for Keanu Reeves to Ease Directing Jitters in Good Fortune

    Cassie Ventura welcomes third child – crossroadstoday.com

    Cassie Ventura Joyfully Welcomes Her Third Child!

    Drew Brees opens Surge Entertainment Center in Metairie hot spot for new businesses – NOLA.com

    Drew Brees Unveils Exciting New Surge Entertainment Center in Metairie!

    Will Gio Stay Or Go On May 27 General Hospital? – Yahoo

    Will Gio Make a Shocking Exit on May 27th’s General Hospital

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    4Liberty Announces Collaboration with Itron to Drive Innovation in Utility Technology Adoption and Optimization – FinancialContent

    4Liberty Partners with Itron to Revolutionize Utility Technology and Boost Innovation

    Q1 2025 Quantum Technology Investment: What’s Driving the Surge in Quantum Investment? – The Quantum Insider

    Unleashing the Future: Exploring the Surge in Quantum Technology Investments for Q1 2025

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MSE, DXC Technology expand tech partnership – Sports Business Journal

    MSE, DXC Technology expand tech partnership – Sports Business Journal

    Technology Driving Performance: How Elite MA Plans Leverage Data, Care Coordination, and Advanced Analytics to Thrive Amid CMS’s Rigorous 2025 Standards, Black Book – Newswire.com

    Unlocking Success: How Top MA Plans Harness Data and Analytics to Excel Under CMS’s 2025 Standards

    Arqit acquires Ampliphae’s technology IP, enhancing its global encryption portfolio – GlobeNewswire

    Arqit Boosts Global Encryption Portfolio with Strategic Acquisition of Ampliphae’s Technology IP

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Receives Expected Nasdaq Notice Regarding Delayed Quarterly Report – Business Wire

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed Quarterly Report

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Aziz Ansari made Keanu Reeves Indian food so he wouldn’t feel ‘freaked out’ directing him in Good Fortune (exclusive) – Entertainment Weekly

    Aziz Ansari Whips Up Indian Cuisine for Keanu Reeves to Ease Directing Jitters in Good Fortune

    Cassie Ventura welcomes third child – crossroadstoday.com

    Cassie Ventura Joyfully Welcomes Her Third Child!

    Drew Brees opens Surge Entertainment Center in Metairie hot spot for new businesses – NOLA.com

    Drew Brees Unveils Exciting New Surge Entertainment Center in Metairie!

    Will Gio Stay Or Go On May 27 General Hospital? – Yahoo

    Will Gio Make a Shocking Exit on May 27th’s General Hospital

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    4Liberty Announces Collaboration with Itron to Drive Innovation in Utility Technology Adoption and Optimization – FinancialContent

    4Liberty Partners with Itron to Revolutionize Utility Technology and Boost Innovation

    Q1 2025 Quantum Technology Investment: What’s Driving the Surge in Quantum Investment? – The Quantum Insider

    Unleashing the Future: Exploring the Surge in Quantum Technology Investments for Q1 2025

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MSE, DXC Technology expand tech partnership – Sports Business Journal

    MSE, DXC Technology expand tech partnership – Sports Business Journal

    Technology Driving Performance: How Elite MA Plans Leverage Data, Care Coordination, and Advanced Analytics to Thrive Amid CMS’s Rigorous 2025 Standards, Black Book – Newswire.com

    Unlocking Success: How Top MA Plans Harness Data and Analytics to Excel Under CMS’s 2025 Standards

    Arqit acquires Ampliphae’s technology IP, enhancing its global encryption portfolio – GlobeNewswire

    Arqit Boosts Global Encryption Portfolio with Strategic Acquisition of Ampliphae’s Technology IP

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home General

How a single honey bee colony led to a species invasion

February 29, 2024
in General
How a single honey bee colony led to a species invasion
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

These Asian honey bees beat an evolutionary paradox in Australia.

By

Lauren Leffer

|

Published Feb 29, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland.

Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland. Ros Gloag, 2016

In evolutionary terms, every invasive species is extraordinary. Take an organism out of its native habitat that it’s specifically evolved to survive in over millions and millions of years, plop it somewhere new, and–by chance–it flourishes. Adding to the miraculousness: Invasive species often arrive in their new environments in initially small numbers, carrying far less genetic diversity than they have in their home range. A drop in genetic diversity, called a “genetic bottleneck,” means less potential for adaptability and flexibility in the face of challenges. 

This is the genetic paradox of invasion; small, genetically homogenous groups of organisms, taken far from home, can still become pervasive pests. For example, the famous case of cane toads, brought to Australia to try to control insects munching on sugarcane crops, quickly became an-ever-expanding menace in their own right. 

Clearly, many invasive species manage to thrive despite the evolutionary roadblocks, and cane toads aren’t the only interlopers disrupting the down-under ecosystem. New research of a stinging, buzzing environmental threat offers some insight into how and why. 

Surprising selection

In a study published February 29 in the journal Current Biology, scientists cataloged the spread of Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) in Australia, and analyzed the invasive populations’ genetic journey. They found that the tens of thousands of hives now buzzing across northeastern Australia likely originated from a single bee colony (one breeding queen and her workers), introduced to a Queensland port around 2007. Despite that extreme initial genetic bottleneck, over the course of just 10 years, the insects started re-diversifying and adapting to their foreign habitat via natural selection, according to the research. One queen bee held enough genetic diversity to kickstart an entire, viable population. “Our data support the view that genetic bottlenecks may have little impact on adaptive potential,” write the study authors. 

“We weren’t expecting to find selection,” says lead researcher Kathleen Dogantzis, a biologist at York University in Toronto. Usually, patterns of natural selection take a long time to emerge. “The assumption is that it takes populations a lot longer to get acclimatized and adapted to a new environment. But we were able to show that, in a very short period of time–within this 10-year period–certain regions of the genome are contributing,” to the bees’ population growth, she explains.

“Despite having very little genetic diversity, these insects managed to use what they brought with them as the basis for adaptation,” says co-senior study author Amro Zayed, a biology professor at York University.  

The study is “a fantastic story and incredibly insightful,” says Andrew Suarez, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois who studies biological invasions, but was uninvolved in the new work. Not only were Dogantzis, Amro, and their colleagues able to suss out the surprising, probable origins of the invasive bees, but they also zeroed in on what, specific, genetic changes the insects are undergoing in Australia. Selection appears to be acting on bee genes associated with social structure, reproduction, and foraging, per the study. The findings illustrate evolution in real time, showing what sorts of pressures the bees are subject to in their adopted range and how they’ve managed to respond.  “I was excited to see that,” adds Suarez. 

Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland. Credit: Ros Gloag, 2016 Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland. Credit: Ros Gloag, 2016

An invasive species’ origins

Asian honey bees are native to a wide swath of Asia, from Afghanistan to Japan. In their home range they’re critical pollinators and an important part of the ecological web. But in Australia, where the honey bees aren’t native, they may compete with native insects, birds, and mammals for flower resources, and nest in tree cavities that would otherwise offer important habitat for native species. The Asian honey bees also threaten the human-managed hives of European honey bees that are used to boost agricultural production. 

The closest native population to Australia is in Indonesia, but people brought the insects to New Guinea in the 1970s for their honey and farming purposes. And this is where the colony that made it to Queensland shores came from, according to the new study. The researchers compared genome sequences from the native Indonesian population, the introduced New Guinean colonies, and the invasive Australian hives and found that the Australian and New Guinean bees were mostly closely related. 

Bee bonanza

From there, Amro, Dogantzis, and their co-researchers looked at how the Australian bees’ whole genomes were changing each year from 2008 to 2018, as the insects’ numbers exploded to an estimated 10,000-50,000 colonies. Through a multi-step analysis, they pinpointed 481 tiny genetic variants (known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) that could be having an outsized impact on bee survival, and appear to be undergoing positive selection. In other words, these 481 gene alterations spread through the population in a non-random pattern that suggests they’re beneficial to the bees. 471 of these variants could be traced back to the Indonesian or New Guinean bee population–indicating that almost all of these adaptations were carried by that first colony in Australia, while just a few could be the product of new mutations. 

Using the well-studied European honey bee genome as a reference, the scientists were able to predict what these SNPs do. They found that several of the genes are related to reproduction, honey bee caste development, and foraging behavior–all traits likely to be important for survival and managing a new environment. “A species can adapt very rapidly, even when most genetic diversity is lost,” says co-senior study author Ros Gloag, an evolutionary biologist at The University of Sydney. “It’s because natural selection finds something to work with, even when diversity is low,” she adds.  

Limits and possibilities

There are some limitations to how widely these findings, alone, can or should be extrapolated. For one, “we can only observe invasions if they’re successful,” says Zayed–which means there’s an inherent data bias. Nobody knows how many Asian honey bee colonies reached Australia before the one that led to a successful invasion. So, though it’s possible for one colony to multiply and diversify, it certainly shouldn’t be an expectation in conservation efforts, he adds. Plus, honey bees and other social insects have certain advantages when it comes to populating new habitats. Queens can mate with multiple males and store their sperm, continually laying eggs that reflect the diversity of more than one paternal line. Bees and ants reproduce quickly–a queen can lay up to thousands of eggs in a day. And the colonial structure means that gathering resources and defending against danger is easier. 

Then, there are inherent limits to the researchers’ genetic analyses, says Natalie Hofmeister, an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan who wasn’t involved in the new study. The approach can detect patterns and suggest likely correlations, but not prove causes of genetic change, she explains. Hofmeister further notes that the methods the researchers used weren’t developed to pick up on rapid evolutionary changes and it’s possible (though unlikely) that the 481 SNPs weren’t the result of selection. 

Nevertheless, “it’s an elegant study,” she says, that adds to a growing body of research on the evolution of biological introductions and sets up lots of future hypotheses worth testing. To better protect against future species invasions and understand what allows some animals to succeed over others, we need more research like this across taxa, Hofmeister says. 

Suarez agrees. The strategy of looking at whole genomes at multiple time points is “really exciting,” he says. Though species invasions carry many environmental downsides, the silver lining is that they present unique opportunities to study evolution in action. In his view, the research sheds light on how one particular insect invasion has unfolded, but also boosts our broader understanding of what’s biologically possible and how to gauge the risk of future species introductions–just a single colony can spur a whole population. The knowledge, Suarez says, could potentially help both those trying to control the spread of harmful animals and conservationists seeking to save endangered animals with dwindling populations. “There’s so many lessons that we can learn across biology from this sort of approach,” he says. 

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Popular Science – https://www.popsci.com/environment/invasive-bees-australia/

Previous Post

Oscars 2024: Who’s Performing And What To Expect—As Ryan Gosling Prepares For ‘I’m Just Ken’

Next Post

Jump for joy—get an iPad for $250 at Best Buy on Leap Day

Even birds can’t out-fly climate change – Phys.org

Even birds can’t out-fly climate change – Phys.org

May 30, 2025
Opinion | How China’s maritime strategy is swapping force for research diplomacy – South China Morning Post

Opinion | How China’s maritime strategy is swapping force for research diplomacy – South China Morning Post

May 30, 2025
Newly discovered ‘ghost’ lineage linked to ancient mystery population in Tibet, DNA study finds – Live Science

Unveiling the Secrets of Tibet: A Fascinating ‘Ghost’ Lineage Revealed by DNA Study

May 30, 2025
‘Wicked,’ gardening and Amy Sedaris: 7 events this week – Albuquerque Journal

‘Wicked,’ gardening and Amy Sedaris: 7 events this week – Albuquerque Journal

May 30, 2025
Yankees have a busload of momentum heading into World Series rematch against Dodgers – AP News

Yankees have a busload of momentum heading into World Series rematch against Dodgers – AP News

May 30, 2025
Economists blame Trump tariffs, AI explosion for threatening global economy – theregister.com

How Trump’s Tariffs and the AI Boom Are Shaking Up the Global Economy

May 30, 2025
Allied Gaming & Entertainment Receives Expected Nasdaq Notice Regarding Delayed Quarterly Report – Business Wire

Allied Gaming & Entertainment Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed Quarterly Report

May 30, 2025
UMC Health System, Texas Tech HSC to honor endowed chairs, professors – Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Celebrating Excellence: UMC Health System and Texas Tech HSC Honor Distinguished Professors and Endowed Chairs

May 30, 2025
Paris on Politics: Israel-Gaza conflict gets personal in Chicago’s City Council – FOX 32 Chicago

Paris on Politics: Israel-Gaza conflict gets personal in Chicago’s City Council – FOX 32 Chicago

May 30, 2025
Anduril and Meta Team Up to Transform XR for the American Military – Anduril

Revolutionizing Military Training: Anduril and Meta Join Forces to Enhance XR Technology

May 30, 2025

Categories

Archives

May 2025
MTWTFSS
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
« Apr    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (651)
  • Economy (664)
  • Entertainment (21,571)
  • General (15,248)
  • Health (9,706)
  • Lifestyle (666)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (666)
  • Politics (672)
  • Science (15,886)
  • Sports (21,170)
  • Technology (15,651)
  • World (652)

Recent News

Even birds can’t out-fly climate change – Phys.org

Even birds can’t out-fly climate change – Phys.org

May 30, 2025
Opinion | How China’s maritime strategy is swapping force for research diplomacy – South China Morning Post

Opinion | How China’s maritime strategy is swapping force for research diplomacy – South China Morning Post

May 30, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version