Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in reproduction and overall health. As climate change and modern agriculture reduce the availability of natural pollen, this innovation could offer a practical way to support struggling bee populations.

Using CRISPR-Cas9, scientists engineered a yeast to produce the nutrient feed. Farmers could have it in two years.

  • [object Object]@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    8 hours ago

    Plenty of companies have been founded by former university researchers based on discoveries they’ve made while at said universities. Presumably nothing prevents those folks from patenting the newfound methods for themselves.

    • despoticruin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      You would be surprised, yeast cats and breweries have a ton of overlap, IE pretty cheap tanks and reasonably standard infrastructure. Most universities with a biology research wing is going to have a few bio-reactors, and while they may not be able to produce the feed itself industrially, they can easily breed starters to sell to places like breweries and companies that already produce yeast at massive scale.