Effects of ingestion of a biotin-binding protein on adult and larval honey bees

Abstract

The insecticidal properties of biotin-binding proteins (BBPs) have recently been exploited in transgenic plants. As BBPs have a broad spectrum of insect toxicity, their potential impacts on non-target insects such as honey bees need to be assessed. In this study, the effects of feeding a purified BBP, avidin, to honey bee larvae and adults were determined. A realistic larval dosing regime was developed by estimating the pollen content of brood food in the field and adding avidin to artificial diet at rates that simulated the presence of avidin-expressing transgenic pollen in brood food. Larval survival and development were unaffected by avidin in assays which simulated larvae receiving pollen expressing 0, 4 or 40 μM avidin at concentrations of 164 μg pollen per mg food for the first 2 days and 880 μg pollen per mg food thereafter. Food consumption and survival of adult bees were also unaffected by avidin added to pollen-candy at levels corresponding to pollen expression of 0, 6.7 or 20 μM avidin.