Sterility in honey bees caused by dimethyl sulfoxide.

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) semen was treated as follows: diluted in saline with 10 percent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and stored at -196 degrees C; same treatment but stored at 12 degrees C; diluted in saline and stored at 12 degrees C; and undiluted, unstored semen. Daughters (queens) produced from the treated spermatozoa were evaluated for total sterility. Only sterile eggs were produced from 3 percent of the queens in both groups that had DMSO (5/166 in group 1, and 6/234 in group 2). They were different (P less than 0.05) from groups 3 and 4 in which no queens were produced that laid only sterile eggs (0/151 and 0/137, respectively). These results demonstrate that, under the conditions used, a low level of sterility is induced by DMSO, and this F1 sterility raises questions about possible genetic damage by DMSO.