Question at position 4 One of your neighbours plans to use antibiotic compounds to fight a bacterial disease that blemishes the leaves of her rose bush, and then eventually kills the whole plant. Knowing that you are taking a Bee course at CU, she asks you how this might affect honey bees in her area. You should tell her… The antibiotic compounds will likely help the bees because they will kill bacteria that are harmful to rose bushes AND bees. Some of the bees will be hurt by the antibiotic compounds because bees have been shown to have allergies to themThe bees will be fine ; they belong to the Kingdom Animalia, and NOT to the Bacteria kingdom, and therefore will be unaffected by the treatmentThe bees might be hurt by the antibiotics compounds because those may kill bacteria that are part of their gut microbiome.

Question

Question at position 4 One of your neighbours plans to use antibiotic compounds to fight a bacterial disease that blemishes the leaves of her rose bush, and then eventually kills the whole plant. Knowing that you are taking a Bee course at CU, she asks you how this might affect honey bees in her area. You should tell her… The antibiotic compounds will likely help the bees because they will kill bacteria that are harmful to rose bushes AND bees. Some of the bees will be hurt by the antibiotic compounds because bees have been shown to have allergies to themThe bees will be fine ; they belong to the Kingdom Animalia, and NOT to the Bacteria kingdom, and therefore will be unaffected by the treatmentThe bees might be hurt by the antibiotics compounds because those may kill bacteria that are part of their gut microbiome.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, let's restate the scenario and all given options to ground our analysis. The question describes a neighbor using antibiotic compounds to treat a bacterial disease on roses and asks how this might affect honey bees. The answer options are:
- Option A: The antibiotic compounds will likely help the bees because they will kill bacteria that are harmful to rose bushes AND bees.
- Option B: Some of the bees will be hurt by the antibiotic compounds because bees have been shown to have allergies to them
- Option C: The bees will be fine ; they belong to the Kingdom Animalia, and NOT to the Bacteria kingdom, and therefore will be unaffected by the treatment
- Option D: The bees might be hurt by the antibiotics compounds because those may kill bacteria that are part of their gut microbiome.

Now, evaluate each choice:
Option A analysis: This statement assumes antibiotics targeting plant pathogens will also benefit bees or protect them from bacteria. However, antibiotics are not selective to plant pathogens and can disrupt microbiomes in non-target organisms. It is also anthropomorphizing a direct protective effect on bees without evidence. Therefore this option is incorrect because it overgeneralizes the ecosystem impact and ignores potential collateral damage to beneficial bacteria in bees.

Option B analysis: The claim that bees have allergies to antibiotic compounds is not a standard, universally true statement. Allergies to antibiotics are organism-specific and depend on the compound; bees do not typically exhibit ‘allergies’ in the way humans do, and this phrasing is not scientifically precise for explaining antibiotic effects on bees. This makes the assertion dubious and not the best rationale for predicting bee outcomes. Hence, this option is not the best explanation.

Option C analysis: Saying bees will be fine simply because they are animals and not bacteria misses the crucial mechanism: antibiotics can affect non-target microbiota, including gut bacteria in bees, and can have ecological consequences. The taxonomic distinction is irrelevant to the chemical's effect on microbiomes. This option ignores relevant biology and is therefore incorrect.

Option D analysis: This option identifies a key mechanism: antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiome of bees by killing beneficial bacteria residing in their digestive tracts. Loss or alteration of gut bacteria can impact nutrition, digestion, immunity, and susceptibility to pathogens in bees. This explanation directly aligns with established knowledge about antibiotics affecting microbiomes in animals, including insects. Therefore, this is the correct rationale among the choices.

In summary, the incorrect options either misrepresent the scope of antibiotics’ effects, rely on dubious notions about allergies, or ignore the importance of microbiomes, while the correct option accurately points to the risk that antibiotics can disrupt gut bacteria in bees and potentially harm them. The reasoning emphasizes the ecological and physiological role of gut microbiota and how antibiotics can perturb it, which is the central concept here.

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