Discover Top 100 Stories of 2015: #82 Discovery Could Give Bees an Extra Shot at Life
December 8, 2015
From: Discover
Simple protein allows honeybees to inherit “pathogen patterns” akin to antibodies.
By Leah Shaffer
The honeybee’s immune system has a few tricks up its sleeve — tricks that scientists could soon tap to protect stressed bee populations. Insects don’t produce antibodies, the immune system’s way to remember and arm the body against recurring pathogens. Yet bees somehow pass along pathogen immunity to their young, something that shouldn’t be possible without antibodies.
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