Exposure to a 900 MHz electromagnetic field induces a response of the honey bee organism on the level of enzyme activity and the expression of stress-related genes.

There are many artificial sources of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) in the environment, with a value between 100 MHz and 6 GHz. The most frequently used signal is with a frequency of around 900 MHz. The direction of these changes positively impacts the quality of life, enabling easy communication from almost anywhere in the world. All living organisms in the world feel the effects of the electromagnetic field on them. The observations regarding the influence of a RF-EMF on honey bees, describing the general impact of RF-EMF on the colony and/or behavior of individual bees, such as reduction in the number of individuals in colonies, extended homing flight duration, decrease in breeding efficiency, changes in flight direction (movement of bees toward the areas affected by RF-EMF), increase in the intensity and frequency of sounds characteristic for those announcing the impending danger. In this work, we describe the changes in the levels of some of the stress-related markers in honey bees exposed to varying intensities and duration of RF-EMF. One-day-old honeybee worker bees were used for the study. The bees were randomly assigned to 9 experimental groups which were exposed to the following 900 MHz EMF intensities: 12 V/m, 28 V/m, and 61 V/m for 15 min, 1 h and 3 h. The control group was not exposed to the RF-EMF. Each experimental group consisted of 10 cages in which were 100 bees. Then, hemolymph was collected from the bees, in which the activity was assessed AST, ALT, ALP, GGTP, and level of nonenzymatic antioxidants albumin, creatinine, uric acid, and urea. Bees were also collected for the analysis of rps5, ppo, hsp10, hsp70, hsp90, and vitellogenin gene expression. Our study shows that exposure to a 900 MHz electromagnetic field induces a response in the honey bees that can be detected in the level of enzyme activity and the expression of stress-related genes. The response is similar to the one previously described as a result of exposition to UVB irradiation and most likely cannot be attributed to increased temperature.