Team:British Columbia
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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 there is no single cause for CCD, neonicotinoid pesticides carry a major part of the blame.
We are working with Gilliamella apicola, a native midgut bacterium specific to honeybees. We aim to engineer G. apicola to degrade imidacloprid, a common neonicotinoid, into non-toxic compounds. By feeding this bacteria to honeybees as a probiotic, we believe honeybees will become less susceptible to common field doses of imidacloprid and reducing the risk of CCD.
UBC iGEM 2015