UHPLC for Queen Bees
Photo Credit: Chico Sanchez/Getty Images
Bees are vital to our food chain through their pollination of key crops. However, numbers are seriously declining as a result of climate change, changing land usage, and the use of pesticides. The role of the queen bee in the colony is also of great importance to the survival of the group. Without a queen bee the colony cannot survive. Data on the effects of environmental stressors on queens is scarce, therefore a group of scientists from Switzerland have investigated the impact on queens of western honey bees (
Apis mellifera
) using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS–MS) to confirm the pesticide quantities that are often present in the environment.
1
The team theorized that exposure to field-realistic concentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides would significantly reduce the performance of the queen as a result of changes in behaviour, and reproductive anatomy and physiology. To test this, the group exposed developing queens to environmentally-relevant concentrations of the common neonicotinoid pesticides thiamethoxam and clothianidin. Both pesticides are widely applied in global agricultural ecosystems and are therefore available to pollinators, but are currently subjected to two years of restricted use in the European Union because of concerns over their safety. Treatments were administered via pollen supplements that were prepared from bee-collected pollen and honey (3:1 by mass) obtained from non-intensive agricultural areas of Switzerland. Supplements for the neonicotinoid treatment were additionally spiked with 4 ppb thiamethoxam and 1 ppb clothiandin to represent environmentally relevant concentrations observed in the pollen of treated crops. These amounts were confirmed (4.16 ppb and 0.96 ppb for thiamethoxam and clothianidin, respectively) using UHPLC–MS–MS. Queens were allowed to sexually mature. Flight behaviour was observed daily for 14 days; production of worker offspring was observed weekly for four weeks. In pesticide-exposed queens, reproductive anatomy (ovaries) and physiology (sperm quality and quantity), rather than flight behaviour, were affected and more than likely corresponded to a reduction in queen success (alive and ability to produce worker offspring). This study highlights the detrimental effect of neonicotinoids to queens of environmentally and economically important social bees. In addition, it further strengthens the need for stringent risk assessments to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems vulnerable to these elements. - K.M.
Reference
1. G.R. Williams et al.,
Sci. Rep
.
5
, 14621; doi: 10.1038/srep14621 (2015).
AI and GenAI Applications to Help Optimize Purification and Yield of Antibodies From Plasma
October 31st 2024Deriving antibodies from plasma products involves several steps, typically starting from the collection of plasma and ending with the purification of the desired antibodies. These are: plasma collection; plasma pooling; fractionation; antibody purification; concentration and formulation; quality control; and packaging and storage. This process results in a purified antibody product that can be used for therapeutic purposes, diagnostic tests, or research. Each step is critical to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of the final product. Applications of AI/GenAI in many of these steps can significantly help in the optimization of purification and yield of the desired antibodies. Some specific use-cases are: selecting and optimizing plasma units for optimized plasma pooling; GenAI solution for enterprise search on internal knowledge portal; analysing and optimizing production batch profitability, inventory, yields; monitoring production batch key performance indicators for outlier identification; monitoring production equipment to predict maintenance events; and reducing quality control laboratory testing turnaround time.
