CCD marker found for bees

A new marker for Colony Colapse Disorder was found in a study featured in the Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences this week. According to genomeweb; the University of Illinois researchers were using microarrays to analyze gene expression patterns, and found a significant difference in fragmented ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in their guts.

The CCD-affected bees had higher amounts of fragmented rRNA, which could, if infected with a virus, harm ribosome performance; thus hinderring protien manufacturing in the cells.

"If your ribosome is compromised, then you can't respond to pesticides, you can't respond to fungal infections or bacteria or inadequate nutrition because the ribosome is central to the survival of any organism," Berenbaum said in a statement. "You need proteins to survive."

This discovery should be able to lead to earlier diagnosis of CCD infected colonies and brings the whole research-effort one step closer to understanding the underlying factors that cause CCD, a disease that has wiped out massive amounts of bee colonies all over the world.