Chemical genetic interactions of New Zealand bee products in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Propolis, bee venom and bee pollen all have been used by humans traditionally for various medicinal purposes. Studies of these products have been limited primarily to antimicrobial, antifungal, anticancer and free radical scavenging properties. The mechanisms of action of these products remain largely unknown. This study investigates the biological effects of propolis, bee venom and bee pollen using chemical genomics and the yeast model organism. These products are screened against genome-wide yeast mutant libraries to determine the genes, proteins, and pathways that are targets of these products. I identified that propolis chelates iron and consequently creates an iron-deficient condition, which results in the upregulation of plasma membrane and vacuolar high-affinity iron transporters to maximise iron acquisition. Bee venom inhibited the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine via Opi3p that catalyses the final two steps of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis within the CDP-ethanolamine pathway. Bee pollen showed a potential effect on GDP-mannose transport in which the GDP-mannose transport mutants confer hypersensitivity against bee pollen treatment.