A review of nutrition in bumblebees: The effect of caste, life-stage and life history traits

Carnell, Joanne D.; Hulse, Rosaline A.; Hughes, William O.

doi:10.1016/bs.aiip.2020.09.003

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 323 publications

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“…Loss of constraint in the IIS/TOR pathway suggests that different responses to nutritional cues could evolve, a hallmark of caste differentiation in many social species (Kapheim 2017). Differences in diet, either qualitative or quantitative, are associated at some level with caste determination in all independent evolution of castes in bees (Richards and Packer 1994; Rehan and Richards 2010; Kapheim et al 2011; Carnell et al 2020; Starr 2020). A notable instance of a unique nutritional response is observed in honeybee queens.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent evolution associated with the loss of developmental diapause may promote extended lifespan in bees

Santos,

Kapheim

2024

Preprint

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Diapause has long been proposed to play a significant role in the evolution of eusociality in Hymenoptera. Recent studies have shown that shifts in the diapause stage precede social evolution in wasps and bees, however, the genomic basis remains unknown. Given the overlap in molecular pathways that regulate diapause and lifespan, we hypothesized that the evolutionary loss of developmental diapause may lead to extended lifespan among adults, which is a prerequisite for the evolution of eusociality. To test this, we compared 27 bee genomes with or without prepupal diapause. Our results point to several potential mechanisms for lifespan extension in species lacking prepupal diapause, including the loss of the growth hormone PTTH and its receptor TORSO, along with a significant overlap between genes for which selection is intensified and those with a known role in aging. Specifically, we observed purifying selection of pro-longevity genes and relaxed selection of anti-longevity genes within the IIS/TOR pathway in species that have lost prepupal diapause. Changes in selection pressures on this pathway may lead to the evolution of new phenotypes, such as lifespan extension and altered responses to nutritional signals, that are crucial for social evolution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent evolution associated with the loss of developmental diapause may promote extended lifespan in bees

Santos,

Kapheim

2024

Preprint

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“…Importantly, climatic variation impacts plant–pollinator interactions by altering the quality and the quantity of plant resources (i.e. pollen and nectar; Carnell, Hulse & Hughes, 2020 ) or mismatches in the spatio‐temporal distributions of mutualistic partners (Thomson, 2016 ; Gérard et al ., 2020 b ). Water stresses (e.g.…”

Section: Pollinators Benefiting From Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding insect pollinators in the Anthropocene

et al. 2021

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Global changes are severely affecting pollinator insect communities worldwide, resulting in repeated patterns of species extirpations and extinctions. Whilst negative population trends within this functional group have understandably received much attention in recent decades, another facet of global changes has been overshadowed: species undergoing expansion. Here, we review the factors and traits that have allowed a fraction of the pollinating entomofauna to take advantage of global environmental change. Sufficient mobility, high resistance to acute heat stress, and inherent adaptation to warmer climates appear to be key traits that allow pollinators to persist and even expand in the face of climate change. An overall flexibility in dietary and nesting requirements is common in expanding species, although niche specialization can also drive expansion under specific contexts. The numerous consequences of wild and domesticated pollinator expansions, including competition for resources, pathogen spread, and hybridization with native wildlife, are also discussed. Overall, we show that the traits and factors involved in the success stories of expanding pollinators are mostly species specific and context dependent, rendering generalizations of ‘winning traits’ complicated. This work illustrates the increasing need to consider expansion and its numerous consequences as significant facets of global changes and encourages efforts to monitor the impacts of expanding insect pollinators, particularly exotic species, on natural ecosystems.

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“…Experimental studies in controlled conditions have confirmed that the nutritional quality of pollen (e.g., the concentration of protein, and lipids, sterols, and amino acids) can have an impact on the development and mortality of bumblebees (e.g., Taseï and Aupinel, 2008a;Vanderplanck et al, 2014;Moerman et al, 2016Moerman et al, , 2017Barraud et al, 2020;Carnell et al, 2020) and mason bees (Sedivy et al, 2011;Eckhardt et al, 2014). The floral diversity of pollen diet does not seem to be the major factor of quality, as bumblebees develop better on high-quality monofloral diets compared to low-quality polyfloral diets (Moerman et al, 2017;Carnell et al, 2020). The pattern for honey bees appears to be similar at an individual level, with pollen quality (reflected by protein content) having an impact on the physiology and survival of adult honey bees (Brodschneider and Crailsheim, 2010;Di Pasquale et al, 2013;Frias et al, 2016;Omar et al, 2017;Li et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variations in Nutritional Requirements Across Bee Species

Barraud

Barascou

Lefebvre

et al. 2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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With 2,000 species currently recorded in Europe, bees are a highly diversified and efficient group of pollinating insects. They obtain their nutrients from nectar and pollen of flowers. However, the chemical composition of these resources, especially of pollen (e.g., protein, lipid, amino acids, fatty acids, or sterol content), is highly variable among plant species. While it is well-known that bees show interspecific variation in their floral choices, there is a lack of information on the nutritional requirements of different bee species. We therefore developed original experiments in laboratory conditions to evaluate the interspecific variations in bee nutritional requirements. We analyzed the chemical content of eight pollen blends, different in terms of protein, lipid, amino acids, and sterols total concentration and profiles. Each pollen blend was provided to four different bee model species: honey bees (Apis mellifera), bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), mason bees (Osmia bicornis and Osmia cornuta). For each species, specific protocols were used to monitor their development (e.g., weight, timing, survival) and resource collection. Overall, we found that the nutritional requirements across those species are different, and that a low-quality diet for one species is not necessarily low-quality for another one. While honey bees are negatively impacted by diets with a high protein content (~40%), bumblebees and mason bees develop normally on these diets but struggle on diets with a low total amino acid and sterol content, specifically with low concentrations of 24-methylenecholesterol and β-sitosterol. Overall, our study supports the need of conserving and/or introducing plant diversity into managed ecosystems to meet the natural nutritional preferences of bees at species and community level.

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A review of nutrition in bumblebees: The effect of caste, life-stage and life history traits

Cited by 20 publications

References 323 publications

Convergent evolution associated with the loss of developmental diapause may promote extended lifespan in bees

Convergent evolution associated with the loss of developmental diapause may promote extended lifespan in bees

Expanding insect pollinators in the Anthropocene

Variations in Nutritional Requirements Across Bee Species

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