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Mystery toxins in tainted New Zealand honey nabbed

Chemical analysis traces toxic trouble from bees back to a plant’s stealthy biological defense

trail of covert forms of neurotoxin

TOXIC TRAIL  Researchers have discovered a trail of covert forms of tutin, a potent neurotoxin, that goes from tutu shrubs (far left) to passionvine hoppers (center left) to European honeybees (center right) to honey (far right). 

Jon Sullivan/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0); Sid Mosdell/Flickr (CC BY 2.0); © Andrea Vannini/inaturalist.org (CC BY-NC); PollyDot/Pixabay

By Beth Mole

- More than 2 years ago

In a sticky sting operation, researchers may have nabbed the last toxic members of a honey-tainting ring in New Zealand.