Collegiate ag club sets out to use biotech to help bees

A honeybee’s deadliest foe is about the size of the head of a pin.

The Varroa mite is a tiny, reddish-brown, eight-leg parasite that feeds on and eventually kills honeybees, contributing to colony collapse disorder, or sudden death of a bee colony. Varroa mites also transmit bee-deforming viruses and have been called “a modern honeybee plague” by USDA.

With North Dakota home to about one in five U.S. bee colonies, beekeepers in the top honey-producing state are concerned about Varroa mites. Severe infestations can be devastating.

Last year, a group of North Dakota StateUniversity (NDSU) students, members of the Genetic Engineering Corps, set out to find a biotech solution to the Varroa mite problem.

Their project became their entry to the 2023 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, in which student teams from across the world design, build, test, and present synthetic-biology-based solutions to problems facing their community.

The club

The Genetic Engineering Corps was cofounded in 2021 by Mia Haugan and Zachary Tiedeman. Tiedeman has since graduated, but Haugan, now a senior biotechnology and microbiology dual major, remains involved in the club, which centers on competing in the iGEM competition.

Since 2004, iGEM has attracted teams from 66 countries. More than 400teams competed in 2023, developing biotech tools to address issues related to agriculture, climate, environment, conservation, food and nutrition, biomanufacturing, software and AI, and healthcare.

For the 2021 iGEM competition, the NDSU GeneticEngineering Corps developed a plan to engineer a microbe that fights Rhizoctoniasolani, a fungal pathogen that infects soybean roots.Members created a nontoxic, protein-based dye for cotton fabric for 2022.

“I think a lot of people were excited to have more opportunities for lab experience in a biotechnology competition,” says Haugan, recalling the club’s beginnings. “We hear a lot about research you can do in the lab. There are internships, but it was really exciting to learn about something student-led.”

Fun and hard work

The iGEM competition takes place in the fall but requires year-round effort, both in the lab and in the community. Wyatt Warkenthien, a senior biotechnology and microbiology dual major and Genetic Engineering Corps president for the 2022-2023 school year, estimates the club’s 10 to 15 members invested more than a combined 1,000 hours in preparation for the competition in November 2023. The competition took place in Paris, France, but NDSU presented virtually.

“It’s like working at a start-up,” says Warkenthien, who interns at Agathos, a lo-cal biotech start-up. “It’s very fast-paced. Everyone’s trying to work hard and get stuff done, and we’re all trying to accomplish the same goal.”

The Genetic Engineering Corps attracts students of diverse backgrounds and ages, from freshmen to graduate students. Most are microbiology or biotechnology students from the NDSU College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources, but the club welcomes all majors. Computer science students help put together the project wiki page, one of multiple communication components. Engineering and math students have also expressed interest.

“It’s a fun dynamic,” says Abigail Hoffarth, a senior biotechnology and microbiology dual major serving the club as vice president. “There’s a bit of something for everyone.”

Experienced students teach novices molecular techniques in the lab, where the team builds its biotech product — accomplished by constructing and inserting a desired sequence of DNA
into E. coli bacteria to achieve a specific response. They also organize educational events at the
local farmers market and for high school students, teaching about biotechnology. Plus they reach out to community members affected by the issue they are addressing through “human practice” events.

“A lot of those human practice events really shape the specifics of our solution and how we plan to implement it,” Haugan says.

This proved especially true in 2023.

A paradigm shift

Students begin their spring semester by brainstorming project ideas. Once they decided on the Varroa mite issue in early 2023, they started designing their experiments. Their initial plan was to develop a basic card test, similar to those used to determine if a sick patient has the flu or strep. A sample from the hive would be dipped into a solution with engineered bacteria. If the Varroa mites were present, the bacteria would produce a positive line.

“That sounds really simple, but then as we learned more about Varroa mites and beehives it became a lot more complex than that,” Haugan says.

During a meeting with the Red River Valley Beekeepers Association, the students learned the real problem is not the mere presence of mites. The beekeepers operate under the assumption they have Varroa mites in their hives. A few don’t hurt. But there is a turning point, and early detection of severe infestations is critical for treatment.

“So then we had a paradigm shift that our test needs to be able to quantify about how many mites there are per 100 bees because that’s what beekeepers really want to know,” Warkenthien says.

To the field

As part of their research, the students donned protective suits and visited beehives with USDA researchers. In the field, they saw how beekeepers typically track Varroa mite populations: using the powdered sugar test.

Beekeepers scoop up a hundred or so bees, put them in a container filled with powdered sugar, and shake. A mesh cover allows the mites to fall through, while bees stay in the container. The beekeeper counts the fallen mites and, if more than two or three are found, it’s time to treat the hive. The test is labor-intensive, especially for testing multiple hives every few weeks, and it is not always accurate.

Haugan recalls a time they performed the test alongside experienced USDA employees.

“They knew these hives would probably have a somewhat severe Varroa mite infection,” Haugan says. But when they did the test, they found no mites. One of the experts blamed the weather.

“He said it was a very humid day when we tested and that’s probably why our results were what they were,” Haugan says, “which just shows how unreliable this testing method is. They had Varroa mites in those hives, and they don’t usually just disappear.”

Based on everything the students learned, they conceptualized a test they say is less invasive, less time-consuming, and more accurate. An insert for the hive is designed to encourage the queen bee to lay a specific type of larva — the Varroa mites’ favorite meal — in a small comb. The beekeeper swabs that comb and performs the test, which relies on a bacteria that produces the protein mScarlet-I in the presence of guanine, a major component of mite excrement. The more mScarlet-I produced, the deeper red the test appears, and the more Varroa mites present.

While the students did not finalize a physical test by the end of the project cycle, they did have the theoretical gene parts to make the bacteria that would create red pigment in the presence of Varroa mites.

“Our exploration changed our initial ideas, but I think we kind of knew that would happen,” Haugan says.

It’s just part of science, which is what brings these students together.

This article originally appeared in SF College Edition.