Genomics of Stingless Bees – James Hereward

The July meeting of the Australian Native Bee Association – Brisbane Branch was a little different as we were still dealing with Covid 19 restrictions. The presentation was broadcast live on Facebook, with around twelve members present at the meeting.

James Hereward was guest speaker at the meeting presenting his work on Genomics of Stingless Bees.

Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.

Wikipedia

James works at University of Queensland and also works with Tobias Smith, another well known bee scientist in the industry. Toby has a few of his own Stingless Bee colonies in observation hives at the University that are being used in these studies.

James says the technology and costs have significantly improved over the years which makes the process more accessible to more people. Machines can test for bee species, pollen, plant species and bacteria. James is working on developing a service where the general public are able to send him bee or pollen samples for testing. He will also be able to analyse honey for different bee and plant species.

There are 11 known species of Stingless Bees in Australian but James says they’re expecting to find more.

Australian Native Bee Association – Brisbane Branch

Website: https://australiannativebee.org.au

See the video on the Association Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/Australian.Native.Bee.Association/