Request For Quote: Investigate the role of plant sterols in developing artificial honey bee diets

⁠⁠⁠AgriFutures Australia invites applications for the provision of services to: Investigate the role of plant sterols in developing artificial honey bee diets

Background

AgriFutures Australia has long-term, established relationships and strong networks with the Australian honey bee industry. The program invests in research, development and extension, to foster a more productive, sustainable and profitable Australian beekeeping industry.

Within this program, AgriFutures Australia also supports the pollination of Australia’s horticultural and agricultural crops. About two-thirds of Australian agricultural production benefits from insect pollination, most of which is provided by honey bees. Apiarists across the country produce almost 40,000 tonnes of honey per year, with the commercial and recreational sectors contributing $623.8 million to the Australian economy. The value of pollination services provided by honey bees is estimated to contribute $4.6 billion to the Australian economy each year.

Pollen is an essential component of the honey bee diet and colonies cannot rear brood without access to natural pollen. A key constraint in the beekeeping industry is the inability to replace natural pollen with an inexpensive artificial diet that supports brood production. Such a product would allow beekeepers to prepare colonies for honey flows or pollination contracts without the need to move colonies to natural pollen sources, which may be hundreds of kilometres away or not available. Feeding bee-collected pollen is also practised, but such pollen is expensive and poses a disease risk if not irradiated. Moreover, natural pollen fed in the hive attracts small hive beetle infestations which often kills colonies.

Despite decades of research and many ‘pollen supplements’ available for purchase by beekeepers, to date no artificial diet available in Australia allows bees to rear brood for multiple lifecycles. AgriFutures considers the lack of effective pollen replacement products a key knowledge gap and constraint on the Australian beekeeping industry.

In 2025, a paper appeared claiming to have identified the key component found in natural pollen that has not been replicated in commercially available pollen-replacement diets: plant sterols (Bogaert et al 2025 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.3078). Bogaert showed that when plant sterols, notably isofuscosterol and 24-methylene cholesterol are provided in an artificial diet, bees can raise brood even when deprived of natural forage.

A second paper published in Nature (Moore et al 2025 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09431-y) comes to similar conclusions. Moreover, Moore et al report the development of a genetically engineered strain of yeast that produces an appropriate mixture of plant sterols suitable for an artificial bee diet. Combined, the Bogaert and Moore studies pave the way for achieving the goal of a totally artificial honey bee diet that can be produced at scale.

Service requirements

AgriFutures invite proposals that will assist in the development of pollen-replacement diets for promoting hive growth and well-being. Such projects could include, but are not limited to:

• Investigation into the development of pollen-replacement diets which include plant sterols.
• Applied projects that deliver practical, economically viable pollen-replacement feeding strategies suitable for commercial beekeeping operations across Australia.
• Develop improved honeybee diets by refining the ratios of protein, fat and plant sterols to produce optimal colony growth.
• Assess the plant sterol profiles of the pollen of major honey species, and important exotic species such as canola and almonds. The goal would be to determine which if any of these economically useful species lack essential sterols or have them in insufficient amounts.
• Understand the economics of artificial feeding versus colony migration to natural pollen sources.
• Assess the need to control small hive beetles when feeding artificial diets, and if so, how best to control them.
• Validation under commercial beekeeping conditions.
• Collaboration with commercial beekeepers and industry groups is encouraged.

The expected timeframe for completion from commencement is between two to three years.

Contact

If you have any questions about the Request for Quote process, please contact:

Mia Lorber-Hughes

Coordinator, Honey Bee and Pollination

Mia.lorber-hughes@agrifutures.com.au