Engineered Yeast provides rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybees

Abstract

Honeybees are important crop pollinators, but they increasingly face pollen starvation as a result of agricultural intensification and climate change1. Frequent flowering dearth periods and high-density rearing conditions weaken colonies, which often leads to their demise2. Beekeepers provide colonies with pollen substitutes, but these feeds do not sustain brood production because they lack essential sterols found in pollen3,4. Here we describe a technological advance in honeybee nutrition with wide-reaching impacts on global food security. We first measured the quantity and proportion of sterols present in honeybee tissues. Using this information, we genetically engineered a strain of the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce a mixture of essential sterols for bees and incorporated this yeast strain into an otherwise nutritionally complete diet. Colonies exclusively fed with this diet reared brood for significantly longer than those fed diets without suitable sterols. The use of this method to incorporate sterol supplements into pollen substitutes will enable honeybee colonies to produce brood in the absence of floral pollen. Optimized diets created using this yeast strain could also reduce competition between bee species for access to natural floral resources and stem the decline in wild bee populations.

This is good to hear. We are native wild bee supporters, with various amenities in our yard to help bees - dead wood, sunny bare patches of permeable soil, a shallow water basin with pebbles (they like to have pebbles to land on), piles of old stems, native wildflowers, no chems. One thing I've noticed when nectar is scarce is bees sucking up juice from rotting fruit bits - this is actually not good for them, as fruit juices are not as nutritive for bees (wasps do better with that stuff). So you've got me wondering if this yeast supplement could be sprinkled on the fruit bits, when nothing is flowering - especially in drought years. It obviously wouldn't make up for a pollen shortfall, but it might help through lean times.

3 hours ago, TheVat said:

So you've got me wondering if this yeast supplement could be sprinkled on the fruit bits, when nothing is flowering - especially in drought years. It obviously wouldn't make up for a pollen shortfall, but it might help through lean times.

Adding 20% yeast biomass to existing artificial bee feed formulations is a complete diet apparently. A major benefit is that feeding domestcated bees on this not only greatly increases their brood raising performance, but also removes their reliance on natural pollen allowing native wild bee species to flourish also.

“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.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260327000518.htm

8 hours ago, swansont said:

“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.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260327000518.htm

Duplicate of this thread? https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/140403-engineered-yeast-provides-rare-but-essential-pollen-sterols-for-honeybees/

This is really important as you said with climate change and changes to agricultural methods we know that insect and bee populations has been seriously reduced hopefully this can be rolled out to reverse some of the damage. Important as we need bees to help grow crops etc.

It will be interesting if this can be turned in to an off the shelf product, people could buy at garden centres for example, we know the importance of allowing parts of a garden to grow wild, or plant specific flowers etc to help bees etc, This could give that a boost.

Paul

1 hour ago, paulsutton said:

This is really important as you said with climate change and changes to agricultural methods we know that insect and bee populations has been seriously reduced hopefully this can be rolled out to reverse some of the damage. Important as we need bees to help grow crops etc.

It will be interesting if this can be turned in to an off the shelf product, people could buy at garden centres for example, we know the importance of allowing parts of a garden to grow wild, or plant specific flowers etc to help bees etc, This could give that a boost.

Paul

However the elephant in the room is industrialised agriculture, things like pulling up the hedgerows to make giant fields that are easier for ploughing and harvesting. Wildlife diversity collapses. Making yet another industrial intervention to try to correct the damage done by the original industrialisation does not sound like a brilliant strategy. However better than doing nothing, certainly.

Hadn't thought so much about agribees poaching on the wild ones. (Requested this thread be merged with the one on same topic started by Mr Evil yesterday)

46 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Hadn't thought so much about agribees poaching on the wild ones. (Requested this thread be merged with the one on same topic started by Mr Evil yesterday)

"Agribees" made me think of "angrybees"and "aggrobees".

Whatever append to the threat of those "Africanised bees" that were supposed to be flying in huge swarms across the Mato Grosso about 30 years ago and taking over the Americas? There was that terrible film "The Swarm", a source of much amusement to Clive James, as I recall.

16 minutes ago, exchemist said:

"Agribees" made me think of "angrybees"and "aggrobees".

Whatever append to the threat of those "Africanised bees" that were supposed to be flying in huge swarms across the Mato Grosso about 30 years ago and taking over the Americas? There was that terrible film "The Swarm", a source of much amusement to Clive James, as I recall.

It's hilariously awful, usually found on lists of worst films ever made. The Hellstrom Chronicle was far better in the insectmageddon subgenre, giving a knowing wink to the audience now and then.

Seems to be a longevity effect from appearing in The Swarm, however. Lee Grant and Olivia de Havilland both centenarians, Michael Caine and Richard Widmark both reaching 93 (Sir Michael still going). Wonder if they all tried yeast supplements. Or the health regimen of bee venom? Sorry @sethoflagos this is derailing somewhat.

7 hours ago, exchemist said:

However the elephant in the room is industrialised agriculture, things like pulling up the hedgerows to make giant fields that are easier for ploughing and harvesting. Wildlife diversity collapses.

Not only that. When folks talk about honeybees, they often talk about domesticated species with a narrow genetic diversity. While there are efforts to protect them, often wild honeybee population decline. At least in part it seems that domestic honeybees exert competitive pressure on wild populations, and this could make things worse for them. Or at least not better.

Edit: made the comment pre-merge.

On 3/27/2026 at 7:37 PM, sethoflagos said:

Adding 20% yeast biomass to existing artificial bee feed formulations is a complete diet apparently. A major benefit is that feeding domestcated bees on this not only greatly increases their brood raising performance, but also removes their reliance on natural pollen allowing native wild bee species to flourish also.

I am wondering about that. Wouldn't it only work if honeybee and wild bee foraging areas don't overlap? And considering that honeybees are also used widely as pollinators in Ag, wouldn't a strengthen honeybee population increase, rather than decrease pressure on remaining wild populations?