DNA reveals source of honey: Australian study

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CANBERRA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Researchers from Australia's national science agency have found that the DNA of honey can reveal where it was produced.

In a study published on Wednesday, the team from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) found that honey contains DNA from the pollen collected by bees, revealing not only where it was produced but also its main floral sources.

Liz Milla, a postdoctoral fellow from the CSIRO's Environomics Future Science Platform, said the findings could be used for a certification program to confirm the provenance and floral composition of commercial honey.

"The traditional method of using microscopy to identify pollen in honey is time-consuming, requires significant expertise because Australia has such diversity of unique plants, and often can't identify plants to species level," she said in a media release.

"We detected the major floral source on the label in all commercially produced honeys. In 85 percent of samples they were found in the top five most abundant floral components. All of the honeys were composed of mixed florals, which reflects the diverse natural diets of honeybees.

"We found that honeys from eastern and western Australia were easy to tell apart and we could categorize most honeys according to Australia's 89 geographically distinct bioregions from which they came."

Researchers used a process called pollen DNA metabarcoding, which identifies plant species from a short stretch of DNA by comparing it to a database.

Milla said that on top of benefits for the honey industry, which is worth 100 million Australian dollars (77.3 million U.S. dollars) annually in Australia, pollen DNA metabarcoding could also be used to monitor the diets of honeybees.

"Making sure that honeybee colonies have access to nutritious flora could help build resistance to colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has impacted honeybees overseas," she said. Enditem

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