Alcohol intoxication resistance and alcohol dehydrogenase levels differ between the honeybee castes

Miler, Krzysztof; Stec, Daniel; Kamińska, Alicja; Pardyak, Laura; Kuszewska, Karolina

doi:10.1007/s13592-020-00812-y

Cited by 10 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…2). This was in line with earlier research (Miler et al ., In press), but in future studies it would be very interesting to learn if intoxication resistance correlates with age of workers on a finer, individual scale. Secondly, both worker types displayed differences in performance between day and night (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our opinion, the present results imply two main things. First, they suggest that chances of alcohol encounter in the environment are likely higher for foragers than for nurses (see also Miler et al ., In press). Older workers possess some characteristics not yet present in younger ones, enabling the former to cope efficiently with the effects of alcohol during the day.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, only foragers need to ingest alcohol in order to biosynthesize a pheromone, ethyl oleate, which maintains the colony demography by blocking transition into foragers in younger workers (Leoncini et al ., 2004; Castillo et al ., 2012a,b). Finally, foragers but not nurses possess alcohol dehydrogenase, probably the main enzyme for alcohol breakdown during digestion (Miler et al ., In press). Thus, the honeybee workers, and especially foragers, are continuously developed as an alternative invertebrate model for alcoholism‐related research (Søvik & Barron, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notably, such side effects might differ in magnitude in different types of workers (e.g. nurses and foragers), as they likely differ in their abilities to metabolize alcohol (Miler et al ., In press), making this method especially useful for studies devoted to comparisons between worker types. We hypothesized that foragers would show higher intoxication resistance to alcohol than nurses during the day.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diel rhythmicity of alcohol‐induced intoxication in the honeybee workers

et al. 2021

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Among the honeybee workers, extranidal foragers are more rhythmic in their diel activity and more likely to encounter alcohol than intranidal nurses. Foragers are more active and potentially exposed to alcohol during the day, while nurses work around the clock and probably never encounter alcohol. Here, we took advantage of these differences and checked for a connection between the effects of alcohol and period of the day. We hypothesized that foragers would show higher intoxication resistance to alcohol than nurses during the day. Furthermore, we hypothesized that only in foragers the intoxication resistance to alcohol would be different between day and night. We detected higher intoxication resistance to alcohol in older, forager‐age bees, than in younger, nurse‐age bees during the day, which confirmed the first hypothesis. However, the intoxication resistance differed between day and night in both worker types, which provided no support for the second hypothesis. Surprisingly, we found the intoxication resistance to be highest during the night in both types of workers. Reported differences in the intoxication resistance showed no relation to differences in alcohol absorption between day and night, thus the exact mechanistic explanation for the diel oscillation in alcohol influence on bees remained unclear.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diel rhythmicity of alcohol‐induced intoxication in the honeybee workers

et al. 2021

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“…The extent of these behavioural changes depends on the amount of ethanol consumed [12,15] and physiological consequences which follow [16]. Among honeybee workers, foragers working outside the hive seem to show the greatest resistance to the detrimental effects of ethanol [17]. This is likely because foragers are evolutionarily tuned for ethanol exposure due to its occasional encounter in nature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discontinued alcohol consumption elicits withdrawal symptoms in honeybees

et al. 2021

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The honeybee continues to be developed as a model species in many research areas, including studies related to the effects of alcohol. Here, we investigate whether workers display one of the key features of alcoholism, namely withdrawal symptoms. We show that workers fed for a prolonged time on food spiked with ethanol, after discontinuation of access to such food, exhibited a marked increase in the consumption of ethanol and a slight increase in mortality. We additionally show that withdrawal symptoms do not include an increase in appetitiveness of ethanol diluted in water. Our results demonstrate that workers can develop alcohol dependence, which might be especially important in the natural setting of repeated exposure to ethanol in floral nectar and for their potential as a model of alcohol addiction.

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Occasional and constant exposure to dietary ethanol shortens the lifespan of worker honey bees

Ostap-Chec,

Bajorek,

Antoł

et al. 2024

J Comp Physiol B

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Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are one of the most crucial pollinators, providing vital ecosystem services. Their development and functioning depend on essential nutrients and substances found in the environment. While collecting nectar as a vital carbohydrate source, bees routinely encounter low doses of ethanol from yeast fermentation. Yet, the effects of repeated ethanol exposure on bees’ survival and physiology remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the impacts of constant and occasional consumption of food spiked with 1% ethanol on honey bee mortality and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity. This ethanol concentration might be tentatively judged close to that in natural conditions. We conducted an experiment in which bees were exposed to three types of long-term diets: constant sugar solution (control group that simulated conditions of no access to ethanol), sugar solution spiked with ethanol every third day (that simulated occasional, infrequent exposure to ethanol) and daily ethanol consumption (simulating constant, routine exposure to ethanol). The results revealed that both constant and occasional ethanol consumption increased the mortality of bees, but only after several days. These mortality rates rose with the frequency of ethanol intake. The ADH activity remained similar in bees from all groups. Our findings indicate that exposure of bees to ethanol carries harmful effects that accumulate over time. Further research is needed to pinpoint the exact ethanol doses ingested with food and exposure frequency in bees in natural conditions.

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Alcohol intoxication resistance and alcohol dehydrogenase levels differ between the honeybee castes

Cited by 10 publications

References 57 publications

Diel rhythmicity of alcohol‐induced intoxication in the honeybee workers

Diel rhythmicity of alcohol‐induced intoxication in the honeybee workers

Discontinued alcohol consumption elicits withdrawal symptoms in honeybees

Occasional and constant exposure to dietary ethanol shortens the lifespan of worker honey bees

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