Moore, Elynor, de Souza, Raquel T, Felsinger, Stella, Arnesen, Jonathon A, Dyekjaer, Jane D, Farman, Dudley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3579-3672, Goncalves, Rui FS, Stevenson, Philip ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0736-3619, Borodina, Irina and Wright, Geraldine A (2025) Engineered yeast provide rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybees. Nature. ISSN 0028-0836 (Print), 1476-4687 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

Honeybees, the world’s most important crop pollinators, are increasingly facing pollen starvation arising from agricultural intensification and climate change1. Frequent flowering dearth periods and high-density rearing conditions weaken colonies, often leading to their demise2. Beekeepers provide colonies with pollen substitutes, but these feeds cannot sustain brood production because they lack essential sterols found in pollen3,4. Here, we describe a technological breakthrough in honeybee nutrition with wide-reaching impacts on global food security. We first measured the quantity and proportion of sterols found in honeybee tissues. Using this information, we genetically engineered a strain of the oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, to produce a mixture of essential sterols for bees and incorporated it into an otherwise nutritionally complete diet. Colonies fed exclusively with this diet reared brood for significantly longer than those fed diets without suitable sterols. Incorporating sterol supplements into pollen substitutes using this method will enable honeybee colonies to produce brood in the absence of floral pollen. Optimized diets created with this yeast could also reduce competition between bee species for access to natural floral resources, stemming the decline of wild bee populations.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Please note that the dataset for this research is published online here: Wright, Geraldine (2025). Engineered yeast provide rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybee colonies. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22820849.v1 - MP
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sterols
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General) S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) T Technology > T Technology (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health > Chemical Ecology & Plant Biochemistry
Last Modified:	18 Aug 2025 10:20
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/50832

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