Great British Bioscience

The Urban Pollinators Project

Pollinators such as the Common Blue butterfly and Early-nesting Bumblebee, which are shown in these images, play a vital role in maintaining our food supplies. But like many others, these species are struggling in the UK countryside.

UK apples, strawberries, raspberries, beans and tomatoes are all reliant on insect pollinators. Globally, crop pollination services are estimated to be worth $153 billion per year. Understanding the influences that the landscape and other environmental factors can have on our pollinators is therefore of huge importance.

The Urban Pollinators Project, led by scientists at the University of Bristol, is studying how effective our towns and cities are for our bees and other pollinators.

A staggering 98% of the country’s flower-rich meadows have been lost since the end of the Second World War but gardens, allotments and other flower-rich habitats in urban areas could provide a haven for these important insects.

In Bristol, Leeds, Reading and Edinburgh, city-wide surveys of pollinators, together with 60 pollen- and nectar-rich flowering meadows are helping our pollinators flourish.

Read more on this topic at the project website: www.urbanpollinators.org

and blog: http://urbanpollinators.blogspot.co.uk/

For more BBSRC research on pollinators go to: ht.ly/tOmAb

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BEEHAVE

Scientists have created an ingenious computer model that mimics a honey bee colony over the course of several years. The BEEHAVE model was created to investigate the losses of honeybee colonies in recent years and to identify the best course of action for improving honeybee health.

A team of scientists, led by Professor Juliet Osborne from the Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter (and previously at Rothamsted Research), developed BEEHAVE, which simulates the life of a colony including the queen’s egg laying, brood care by nurse bees and foragers collecting nectar and pollen in a realistic landscape.

To build the simulation, the scientists brought together existing honeybee research and data to develop a new model that integrated processes occurring inside and outside the hive. The model allows researchers, beekeepers and anyone interested in bees, to predict colony development and honey production under different environmental conditions and beekeeping practices.

Find out more at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5AZhaYEt5U&feature=share&list=UUQDnaJNuMpSOVMVqhDAN-oA

Or try it out at: www.beehave-model.net.

BBSRC funds lots of research to help us understand bee health because they are vital for pollinating many food crops.

For more BBSRC bee research visit: http://tmblr.co/ZtJ7bq17_I-_W

Images from Peter Kennedy at the University of Exeter.

science bioscience BBSRC20 bbsrc pollinators bees bumblebee FoodSecurity beekeeping model university of exeter pollen

Loss of wild flowers across Britain matches pollinator decline

The first ever Britain-wide assessment of the value of wild flowers as food for pollinators shows that decreasing floral resources mirror the decline of pollinating insects, providing new evidence to support the link between plant and pollinator decline.

In recent years, there have been considerable concerns over threats to wild bees and other insect pollinators which are vital to the success of important food crops and wild flowers.

Amongst the many pressures facing pollinators, a key factor is likely to be decreasing floral resources in Britain.

The study, published in Nature combines vegetation survey data recorded over the last 80 years with modern day measurements of nectar to provide the most comprehensive assessment ever published.

bee bees honey bees pollinators wild flowers flowers nectar food security crops science biology conservation environment habitat habitat loss bbsrc pollinator plants nature

Parasitic bacterium turns plants into zombies

BBSRC-funded scientists have discovered how a bacterial parasite turns plants into the living dead.

The bacteria called phytoplasma is able to manipulate the way plants grow, causing infected plants to transform their flowers into leaf tissue. In doing so, the plants are sacrificing their reproductive success and becoming sterile – dead to the future and destined to only benefit the survival of the bacteria parasite (healthy plant seen in the top image and an infected plant can be seen in the middle image).

For the first time scientists can reveal how this remarkable manipulation takes place. The parasitic bacterium produces a protein called SAP54 that tricks the plant into transforming its flowers into leaf-like material. This transformation makes the plant more attractive to leafhoppers for settlement - the bacterium’s next victim and host to be (see leafhopper in bottom image).

Once an enticed leafhopper eats the infected zombie plant, the bacteria then catches a ride in their saliva on to the next plant they hop on to – starting the cycle all over again.

This research comes from the labs of Professor Hogenhout at John Innes Centre, and Professors Angenent and Immink at Wageningen University.

Images: John Innes Centre

For more research on plant infection go to: http://tmblr.co/ZtJ7bq1BM2QXb

science bioscience BBSRC BBSRC20 plants parasites bacteria flowers research zombie

Stunning entry from Ben Gazur for BBSRC’s 2009 photo comp
The image represents the insect flight paths underpinning the science of pollination and highlights the importance of research in this area for future food security.
Enter your... — **Stunning entry from Ben Gazur for BBSRC’s 2009 photo comp**
The image represents the insect flight paths underpinning the science of pollination and highlights the importance of research in this area for future food security.
**Enter your #ImageswithImpact** **to BBSRC’s latest competition** at http://bbsrc2014.picturk.com/, seeking the best photos that represent how life sciences are changing the world, in areas like: food, farming, bioenergy, biotech, industry and health.

photography imageswithimpact BBSRC BBSRC20 pollination FoodSecurity

Happy #PollinatorAwarenessWeek

This week, we celebrate the humble insect pollinators who work hard to keep us fed.

Some of nature’s tastiest treats such as apples, strawberries and raspberries are all reliant on insects including bees. Globally, the free service provided by pollinators is said to be worth around $153 billion per year.

The steady decline of these important insects over the years raises concern about our ability to feed a growing population.

However, by researching the causes and consequences of threats to insect pollinators, we can help develop strategies to help them to thrive.

Image credit (top to bottom): William Richardson, Kevin Rangeley, Anna G.

Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PollinatorAwarenessWeek.

bees insect pollinators food BBSRC honeybees pollinatorawarenessweek

Summer time visitors
This image shows a migrating Painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui, feeding on nectar to sustain its flight from the UK back to North Africa.
Many insects, like this butterfly, make a long journey into the UK each summer to... — **Summer time visitors**
This image shows a migrating Painted lady butterfly, *Vanessa cardui,* feeding on nectar to sustain its flight from the UK back to North Africa.
Many insects, like this butterfly, make a long journey into the UK each summer to exploit temporary breeding habitats. But climate warming is resulting in more migrants, which is a concern for UK agriculture because many insect migrants are pests.
Researchers from the University of York have been studying migratory flight behaviour that enables insects to undertake successful migrations. This research will help predict future outbreaks of insect pests helping farming across the UK.
Images and research from Jane Hill at the University of York.
For more BBSRC research go to: https://www.facebook.com/bbsrcnews
Or for more insect related news go to: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/fundamental-bioscience/2014/140318-n-fruit-flies-and-that-loving-feeling.aspx

science bioscience BBSRC BBSRC20 insects butterfly climate change agriculture pests summer

Flower forces that bait our bees

Have you ever felt the hairs on your arm stand on end when you brush past an old television screen? Or stuck a balloon to the wall after rubbing it on your jumper? If so you’ve experienced part of the world of static electricity, but you probably haven’t felt the electrical pull of a bee’s wings or the charged electric advertisement of a flower. These tiny electric fields are sensed by bees and used to make important decisions in their lives, like which flowers to visit and which to ignore, and can even help them communicate with each-other inside their hive.

In the top image you can see yellow electrically charged paint being sprayed on a Geranium flower to reveal the fine structure of their electric fields.

In the bottom images you can see a computer simulation of the electric field arising from the interaction between a bumblebee and a petunia flower.

Make sure you get to the Great British Bioscience Festival in London in November to find out more about how electricity helps bees pollinate flowers.

To find out more, visit: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/society/exhibitions/gb-bioscience-festival/electrostatic-interactions-flowers-bees.aspx

Top images copyright: Dominic Clarke/Daniel Robert/Heather Whitney

Bottom image copyright: Dominic Clarke/Julian Harris

science Science illustration bees pollination pollinators electrical charge flowers BBSRC20 BBSRC

It’s BBSRC’s birthday this week!

You can find out more about some of the Great British Bioscience highlights that have occurred over the past 20 years by looking at BBSRC’s interactive timeline: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/timeline/.

The timeline shows where BBSRC’s investments have made a difference – from ground-breaking scientific discoveries, state-of-the-art facilities, shaping Government policies, to the impact that these have had for our society and the economy (see three examples above).

Enjoy, engage and share.

Source: bbsrc.ac.uk science bioscience BBSRC BBSRC20 discovery breakthrough policies economy

BBSRC go to Space

Technology developed from BBSRC-funded research will be used in experiments on board the International Space Station, in orbit 150 miles above the Earth.

Alvetex^®Scaffold technology, produced by Durham University spin-out company Reinnervate, allows cells to be grown in three dimensions (3D). This 3D scaffold structure allows for a more life-like model of how cell populations grow in real tissues, overcoming problems with two-dimensional (2D) culture, where cells flatten and alter their structure and function according to their 2D surroundings.

Now a team from Massachusetts General Hospital investigating bone loss during bed rest, in microgravity or through diseases such as osteoporosis, has received funding from the USA’s National Institutes of Health and NASA to perform an experiment with bone cells using Alvetex^® Scaffold on the space station in 2014.

Find out more

All space images are stills from footage from NASA

Images of Alvetex product copyright Reinnervate

bioscience space BBSRC BBSRC20 tech cells bone loss

Chapattis Vs Zinc Deficiency

Zinc deficiency affects around 17% of the world’s population, mostly in developing countries. In Pakistan, the most recent national nutrition survey indicated that over 40% of women are zinc deficient. Stunted growth and development in children, increased susceptibility to infections, and complications during pregnancy and childbirth are just some of the consequences of zinc deficiency. Potentially leading to severe illness and death, this seemingly invisible deficiency has a negative economic impact on the family, the community, and the region more broadly.

So in May 2017 a group of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire started investigating whether a newly developed strain of biofortified wheat could increase dietary zinc intake in Pakistan by integrating the wheat into normal eating habits, and is being used is used to make chapattis – a staple food in the brick kiln communities of Peshawar.

Biofortified crops are developed using conventional plant breeding techniques, like cross-breeding standard varieties with their wild relatives over several generations. This means that biofortified crops are often more resilient to pests, diseases, higher temperatures and drought, as well as having higher micronutrient concentrations, such as zinc.

The trials were successfully completed in February this year, and the team are heading out to Pakistan this month to meet with research partners. The next steps are laboratory analysis, data entry and statistical analysis, and the team hope they will show improved zinc status associated with consuming bio-fortified zinc flour.

pakistan wheat chapattis biofortification bioscience lancashire peshawar zinc deficiency micronutrients food security health

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You know what’s really cool about writing for tumblr? I actively want to read the comments because we get good contributions and civil critique and interesting dialogue. Now that WADTT posts are getting shared off of tumblr I have to remember that not everyone is as cool as y’all and not to read the comments.

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Chapattis Vs Zinc Deficiency