Amino acid content and nectar choice by forager honeybees (Apis mellifera L.)

Bertazzini, Michele; Mędrzycki, Piotr; Bortolotti, Laura; Maistrello, Lara; Forlani, Giuseppe

doi:10.1007/s00726-010-0474-x

Cited by 71 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…Insects can detect proline in their food and can use it as an energy substrate to fuel flight and other high energy activities (Brosemer and Veerabhadrappa 1965;Crabtree and Newsholme 1970;Carter et al 2006). Honey bees have a feeding preference for nectars with higher concentrations of this amino acid (Carter et al 2006;Bertazzini et al 2010). The preference for proline might also occur in bee bread and thus increase its consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

2012

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-The influence of genotype on the conversion of pollen to bee bread and on the protein titers of bees feeding on it was examined using European and Africanized honey bees (EHB and AHB). Bee bread was more acidic than the pollen, and that made by EHB was slightly more acidic than AHB. Protein concentration in bee bread was similar for both subspecies and lower than in the pollen. In general, amino acid concentrations were higher in bee bread compared with pollen. The only exception was tryptophan. Concentrations of most amino acids in bee bread made by either EHB or AHB were similar. Both subspecies consumed more bee bread made by AHB than EHB. EHB and AHB consumed similar amounts of each type of bee bread, but protein concentrations in AHB were higher than in EHB. Differences in protein acquisition between AHB and EHB might reflect environmental adaptations related to the geographic region where each evolved and could contribute to the successful establishment of AHB populations in the New World.nutrition / microbes / protein / amino acids

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

2012

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“…Plant nectars have high levels of proline, up to 2 mM (Carter et al, 2006), and this high level of proline is thought to be an attractant, as several species of insects prefer high-proline nectars (Carter et al, 2006;Bertazzini et al, 2010). It was also reported that application of proline to plants stimulated insect feeding (Haglund, 1980), whereas plant-produced GABA was an inhibitor of insect feeding (MacGregor et al, 2003).…”

Section: Plant Insect Interactions-proline As An Attractant and Fuelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proline Metabolism and Its Implications for Plant-Environment Interaction

Verslues

Sharma

2010

The Arabidopsis Book

439

341

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Proline has long been known to accumulate in plants experiencing water limitation and this has driven studies of proline as a beneficial solute allowing plants to increase cellular osmolarity during water limitation. Proline metabolism also has roles in redox buffering and energy transfer and is involved in plant pathogen interaction and programmed cell death. Some of these unique roles of proline depend on the properties of proline itself, whereas others depend on the "proline cycle" of coordinated proline synthesis in the chloroplast and cytoplasm with proline catabolism in the mitochondria. The regulatory mechanisms controlling proline metabolism, intercellular and intracellular transport and connections of proline to other metabolic pathways are all important to the in vivo functions of proline metabolism. Connections of proline metabolism to the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and glutamate-glutamine metabolism are of particular interest. The N-acetyl glutamate pathway can also produce ornithine and, potentially, proline but its role and activity are unclear. Use of model systems such as Arabidopsis thaliana to better understand both these long studied and newly emerging functions of proline can help in the design of nextgeneration experiments testing whether proline metabolism is a promising metabolic engineering target for improving stress resistance of economically important plants.

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“…Honey bees can also alter their feeding selection in response to amino acids present in nectar. They prefer nectars enriched with some amino acids such as proline or glycine than other enriched with alanine and serine (Alm et al 1990;Bertazzini et al 2010). The predominance of phenylalanine and/or gamma-aminobutyric acid attracts long-tongued bees and hoverflies, whereas asparagine and tryptophan seem repellent to these insects .…”

Section: Do Generalist Insect Pollinators Serve Weeds Better? Not Alwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weed-insect pollinator networks as bio-indicators of ecological sustainability in agriculture. A review

Rollin¹,

Benelli

Benvenuti

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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The intensification of agricultural practices contributes to the decline of many taxa such as insects and wild plants. Weeds are serious competitors for crop production and are thus controlled. Nonetheless, weeds enhance floral diversity in agricultural landscapes. Weeds provide food for insects in exchange for pollination. The stability of mutualistic interactions in pollination networks depends on conservation of insect pollinator and weed communities. Some agricultural practices can destabilize interactions and thus modify the stability of pollination networks. Therefore, more knowledge on weed-insect networks is needed. Here, we review the interactions involved in insect visits to weed flowers in temperate arable lands. Our main findings are that (1) weed pollination by insects has a key role in maintaining weed communities in arable lands; (2) weed-insect pollinator interactions are modulated by the flowers' features and their quality which are attracting insects; (3) most weeds are associated with generalist insect pollinators; and (4) even if weed-pollinator networks are largely mutualistic, some antagonist networks can be observed when deception occurs. We propose three weed-insect pollinator networks as potential bio-indicators to evaluate the ecological sustainability of arable land management strategies in temperate areas: (1) Geometridae and Bombyliidae species visiting Caryophyllaceae, (2) Papilionidae foraging on Apiaceae, and (3) Syrphidae visiting Asteraceae.

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Amino acid content and nectar choice by forager honeybees (Apis mellifera L.)

Cited by 71 publications

References 23 publications

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

Proline Metabolism and Its Implications for Plant-Environment Interaction

Weed-insect pollinator networks as bio-indicators of ecological sustainability in agriculture. A review

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