A new design of bee cage for laboratory experiments: nutritional assessment of supplemental diets in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Yang, Kai-Chieh; Peng, Zhiwei; Lin, Chun-Ching; Wu, Ming‐Cheng

doi:10.1007/s13592-020-00832-8

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The experiment was performed on three groups of 50 newly emerged adult honey bees, which were given 50% sucrose syrup (S), SYM broth that had fermented for 4 days (F), and supernatant liquid from that fermentation broth (FS), respectively. The honey bees were placed in a transparent acrylic cage (15 cm × 10 cm × 15 cm) that were transferred to a growth chamber with no light in which the temperature and relative humidity were maintained at 33 ± 1 °C and 60% ± 10% [ 47 ]. The syrup or fermentation broth was replaced every 3 days, and the bees were observed for 1 week, during which the mortality rate was recorded and the dead bees were removed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The polyfloral bee pollens, used in this study, were collected with a pollen trap in the university apiary from March to May (spring season in Taiwan) [ 47 ]. A total of 10 7 CK–CsC spores were inoculated into YPD medium that was then incubated with shaking for 1 day at 28 °C.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Next, qPCR was performed to determine the expression of nutrient genes mrjp1 and vg and antibacterial peptide genes apidaecin and hymenoptaecin. The primers used are presented in Supplementary Table S2 [ 23 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Each qPCR assay was conducted in a 96-well plate, and every 20 μL of reaction solution contained 10 μL of 2 × iQ SYBR Green Supermix (Bio-Rad, Taipei, Taiwan), 2.5 μL of 1.6 μM of each gene-specific primer, and 5 μL of diluted cDNA.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Potential Fungal Probiotic Aureobasidium melanogenum CK-CsC for the Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

Hsu

Wang

2021

JoF

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Aureobasidium melanogenum has been used as an animal feed additive for improving thehealth of pets, however, it has not yet been applied in honey bees. Here, a fungal strain CK-CsC isolated from bee bread pollen, was identified as A. melanogenum. Following characterizing CK-CsC fermentation broth, the 4-days fermentation broth (SYM medium or bee pollen) of the CK-CsC was used to feed newly emerged adult honey bees in cages under laboratory-controlled conditions for analysis of survival, gene expression of nutrient and antibacterial peptide, and gut microbiota of honey bees. It was found that the CK–CsC fermentation broth (SYM medium or bee pollen) is nontoxic to honey bees, and can regularly increase nutrient gene expression of honey bees. However, significant mortality of bees was observed after bees were fed on the supernatant liquid of the fermentation broth. Notably, this mortality can be lowered by the simultaneous consumption of bee pollen. The honey bees that were fed bee pollen exhibited more γ-Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, and Actinobacteria in their gut flora than did the honey bees fed only crude supernatant liquid extract. These findings indicate that A. melanogenum CK–CsC has high potential as a bee probiotic when it was fermented with bee pollen.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Potential Fungal Probiotic Aureobasidium melanogenum CK-CsC for the Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

Hsu

Wang

2021

JoF

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“…Three treatment groups were designed: (1) S group: caged bees treated with 50% sucrose solution, (2) M group: caged bees treated with the MRS broth containing 50% sucrose, and (3) F group: caged bees treated with the TBE-8 broth containing 50% sucrose. For each treatment, 40 bees were introduced into the bee cage for the assay 43 . Each cage experiment was replicated four times by using different honey bee colonies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, we investigated the effects of the TBE-8 fermented broth on the expression of nutrition- and immune-related genes in bees. We determined that the genes major royal jelly protein 1 ( MRJP1 ) and vitellogenin ( VG ) were responsible for nutritional storage and physiological development in honey bees, and both these genes can be used as nutritional markers in honey bees 38 – 43 . In addition, we assessed the expression of two immune-related genes, namely hymenoptaecin and apidaecin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A potential probiotic Leuconostoc mesenteroides TBE-8 for honey bee

Huang

Chen

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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An isolated bacterium TBE-8, was identified as Leuconostoc mesenteroides according to the sequences of 16S rDNA and the 16S–23S rDNA intergenic spacer region. The probiotic properties of the L. mesenteroides TBE-8 strain were characterized and revealed that TBE-8 could utilize various carbohydrates, exhibited high tolerance to sucrose’s osmotic pressure and acidic conditions, and could mitigate the impact of the bee pathogen Paenibacillus larvae. In addition, we found that the TBE-8 broth increased the expression of the nutrition-related genes major royal jelly protein 1 and vitellogenin in bees by approximately 1400- and 20-fold, respectively. The expression of genes encoding two antibacterial peptides, hymenoptaecin and apidaecin, in the bee abdomen was significantly increased by 17- and 7-fold in bees fed with the TBE-8 fermented broth. Furthermore, we fed four-frame bee colonies with 50% sucrose syrup containing TBE-8 and can detect the presence of approximately 2 × 106 16S rDNA copies of TBE-8 in the guts of all bees in 24 h, and the retention of TBE-8 in the bee gut for at least 5 days. These findings indicate that the L. mesenteroides TBE-8 has high potential as a bee probiotic and could enhance the health of bee colonies.

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Biohybrid Superorganisms—On the Design of a Robotic System for Thermal Interactions With Honeybee Colonies

Barmak,

Hofstadler,

Stefanec

et al. 2024

IEEE Access

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Social insects, such as ants, termites, and honeybees, have evolved sophisticated societies where collaboration and division of labor enhance survival of the whole colony, and are thus considered ''superorganisms''. Historically, studying behaviors involving large groups under natural conditions posed significant challenges, often leading to experiments with a limited number of organisms under artificial laboratory conditions that incompletely reflected the animals' natural habitat. A promising approach to exploring animal behaviors, beyond observation, is using robotics that produce stimuli to interact with the animals. However, their application has predominantly been constrained to small groups in laboratory conditions. Here we present the design choices and development of a biocompatible robotic system intended to integrate with complete honeybee colonies in the field, enabling exploration of their collective thermoregulatory behaviors via arrays of thermal sensors and actuators. We tested the system's ability to capture the spatiotemporal signatures of two key collective behaviors. A 121-day observation revealed thermoregulation activity of the broodnest area during the foraging season, followed by clustering behavior during winter. Then we demonstrated the system's ability to influence the colony by guiding a cluster of bees along an unnatural trajectory, via localized thermal stimuli emitted by two robotic frames. These results showcase a system with the capability to experimentally modulate honeybee colonies from within, as well as to unobtrusively observe their dynamics over extended periods. Such biohybrid systems uniting complete societies of thousands of animals and interactive robots can be used to confirm or challenge the existing understanding of complex animal collectives.

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A new design of bee cage for laboratory experiments: nutritional assessment of supplemental diets in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Cited by 5 publications

References 42 publications

A Potential Fungal Probiotic Aureobasidium melanogenum CK-CsC for the Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

A Potential Fungal Probiotic Aureobasidium melanogenum CK-CsC for the Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

A potential probiotic Leuconostoc mesenteroides TBE-8 for honey bee

Biohybrid Superorganisms—On the Design of a Robotic System for Thermal Interactions With Honeybee Colonies

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