In the journal PLOS Pathogens, the international team explains that the queen honey bee passes a blood protein to her eggs.

The protein - called vitellogenin - plays a critical, but previously unknown, role in protecting bees against disease.

Co-author Gro Amdam, a Norwegian biologist and life sciences professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, is internationally known for her research on honey bees. She says:

"The process by which bees transfer immunity to their babies was a big mystery until now. What we found is that it's as simple as eating."

Prof. Amdam and her colleagues, from the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä - both in Finland - have been working in this area for more than 10 years.

They say their discovery opens the door to new ways to protect bee colonies against devastating pathogens from which they have no natural immunity.

How do bees acquire immunity?
In a honey bee colony, the queen bee relies on worker bees to bring her food, as she rarely leaves the nest. As the worker bees gather pollen and nectar in the environment, they naturally pick up pathogens.

When they arrive back at the nest, the worker bees use the pollen to make "royal jelly," which is fed to the queen. In doing so, they transfer some of the bacteria they have picked up while foraging.

When the queen eats the royal jelly, she digests the bacteria along with the other ingredients and passes it to her body cavity. Pieces of digested bacteria eventually end up in her "fat body" - the bee equivalent of the liver.

In the queen's fat body, pieces of bacteria become attached to the blood protein vitellogenin, which is carried through her blood to the developing eggs. The larvae that then hatch from her eggs have immune systems that are "vaccinated" against some of the pathogens in their environment and the diseases they cause.

Much of this story was already known; what the new study brings is the discovery that it is vitellogenin that carries the immune-priming signals.

The team explains that this natural vaccination method only immunizes bees against some - but not all - deadly pathogens. But, now we know how this happens, perhaps we can use it to create edible vaccines for insects, they note.

Co-author Dr. Dalial Freitak, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, adds:

"We are patenting a way to produce a harmless vaccine, as well as how to cultivate the vaccines and introduce them to bee hives through a cocktail the bees would eat. They would then be able to stave off disease."

One deadly disease the researchers have in mind is American Foul Brood, which spreads quickly and destroys honey bee hives.

Bee larvae catch the disease as they ingest food contaminated with spores from the American Foul Brood bacteria. The bacteria feed on the larvae and kill them.

Bees are important for our food supply
Why should the average person care about bee diseases? Because without bees, we would have a huge gap in our food supply.

Bees and other pollinators are vital for a healthy economy and critical to food security. They are important for the production of fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Estimates suggest honey bees alone support the cultivation of 90-130 crops, which directly or indirectly account for up to a third of the US diet.

Yet many pollinators - honey bees included - are in serious decline in the US and worldwide. Over the last 60 years, managed bee colonies in the US have fallen from 6 million to 2.5 million.

As well as disease, something called colony collapse disorder is responsible for this staggering loss of important pollinators. Scientists are not sure exactly what causes it, but many believe pesticides, pathogens and nutrition problems are behind it.

The researchers suggest the new findings could also help in the search for a way to combat colony collapse disorder.

They also suggest the findings have wider implications for all species that lay eggs - including fish, poultry, amphibians and insects - because they also have vitellogenin in their bodies. One possibility is the production of natural, inexpensive vaccines that the food industry can use. Prof. Amdam concludes:

           "Because this vaccination process is naturally occurring, this process would be cheap and ultimately simple to implement. It has the potential to both improve and secure food production for humans."

Source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/297637.php

Bees· Discover· Health News· How To· Immunize· MEDICAL NEWS· Naturally· News· Scientists

Scientists Discover How Bees Naturally Immunize Their Offspring:

Normally, when bone gets damaged, because it is partly made of living cells, it can heal itself by growing new tissue or remodeling. But while teeth are bone-like, they do not have this facility. So how do they survive a lifetime of wear and tear?
In the journal Nano Letters, researchers led by members from the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany describe how they examined the mechanical properties of tiny nanoparticle and fiber structures inside dentin - the layer of softer, porous material that lies under the much harder enamel covering of teeth.
The researchers already knew that dentin contains tiny layered structures of mineral nanoparticles embedded in, and firmly attached to, collagen protein fibers.
And while it was thought these layers of mineral nanoparticles and collagen proteins make teeth tough and damage resistant - it was not clear how they stopped cracks from growing.
Mineral nanoparticles in collagen structures in dentin are 'pre-compressed'
The new study reveals that the nanoparticles are "pre-compressed" and it is this that stops cracks from traveling, as senior author Dr. Paul Zaslansky of the Julius Wolff Institute of the Charité explains:
"The compressed state helps to prevent cracks from developing and we found that compression takes place in such a way that cracks cannot easily reach the tooth inner parts, which might damage the sensitive pulp."
Engineers use compression to strengthen industrial materials for stress-bearing jobs such as gears and turbine blades. Now this study reveals that evolution may have arrived at this solution in teeth long before industrial man.
The researchers examined the tiny structures of tooth dentin using micro- and nanofocused X-ray beams generated by advanced synchrotron-based diffraction equipment, some of which is based at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.
They altered the humidity of dentin samples to change its mechanical properties and study how stress was generated in the material.
They found that when the collagen fibers shrank, this increased the compression in the attached mineral nanoparticles.
In further tests, they found that heat weakens the link between the nanoparticles and the fibers, making the dentin more brittle.
Study may lead to tougher ceramic materials for tooth replacements
First author Jean-Baptiste Forien, a PhD student in the Julius Wolff Institute, says:
"We therefore believe that the balance of stresses between the particles and the protein is important for the extended survival of teeth in the mouth."
The team suggests their findings may explain why artificial tooth replacements are not as resilient as healthy, natural teeth. Perhaps ceramic materials are too "passive" and do not respond to stress in the same way as the natural, pre-compressed structures.

Source= http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295501.php

Dentin· MEDICAL DISEASES· MEDICAL NEWS· Medical News Today· Nanostructure· Scientists· Show How· Stops· Teeth Cracking

Scientists Show How Nanostructure Of Dentin Stops Teeth Cracking: