Abstract
Most animals can modulate nutrient storage pathways according to changing environmental conditions, but in honey bees nutrient storage is also modulated according to changing behavioral tasks within a colony. Specifically, bees involved in brood care (nurses) have higher lipid stores in their abdominal fat bodies than forager bees. Pheromone communication plays an important role in regulating honey bee behavior and physiology. In particular, queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) slows the transition from nursing to foraging. We tested the effects of QMP exposure on starvation resistance, lipid storage, and gene expression in the fat bodies of worker bees. We found that indeed QMP-treated bees survived much longer compared to control bees when starved and also had higher lipid levels. Expression of vitellogenin RNA, which encodes a yolk protein that is found at higher levels in nurses than foragers, was also higher in the fat bodies of QMP-treated bees. No differences were observed in expression of genes involved in insulin signaling pathways, which are associated with nutrient storage and metabolism in a variety of species; thus, other mechanisms may be involved in increasing the lipid stores. These studies demonstrate that pheromone exposure can modify nutrient storage pathways and fat body gene expression in honey bees and suggest that chemical communication and social interactions play an important role in altering metabolic pathways.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Professor Cavell Brownie for statistical advice, Joe Flowers for expert beekeeping assistance, Dr. Yongliang Fan for assistance with qRT-PCR experiments, members of the Grozinger lab for helpful discussions, and Gene Robinson, Amy Toth, and Seth Ament for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by an NIH-NIDCD grant (1 R01 DC006395-01A1) to G.E. Robinson (subaward to CMG). These experiments comply with the laws of the USA.
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Fischer, P., Grozinger, C.M. Pheromonal regulation of starvation resistance in honey bee workers (Apis mellifera). Naturwissenschaften 95, 723–729 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0378-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0378-8