Team:British Columbia
Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem, given the ecological and economical importance of honeybees. Experts estimate that honeybees pollinate $14 billion worth of seeds and crops per year in the United States alone. Though the mechanisms by which CCD occurs are likely many fold and remain uncertain, neonicotinoid pesticides have been implicated. Gilliamella apicola is a bacterium that natively resides in the midgut of the bee. Our project aims to engineer G. apicola to metabolize imidacloprid, a common neonicotinoid, into harmless organic compounds using three cytochrome P450 enzymes: CYP6CM1vQ, CYP6G1, and HUMCYPDB1. Though 6-CNA, the breakdown product of imidacloprid, displays significantly lower toxicity, it still induces sublethal effects. As such, we have also incorporated a pre-existing 6-CNA degradation pathway from Pseudomonas putida for complete breakdown of imidacloprid. We believe honeybees that harbour this engineered bacterium in probiotic form will become less susceptible to common field doses of imidacloprid; thus, significantly reducing the risk of CCD.
UBC iGEM 2015