Best be(e) on low fat: linking nutrient perception, regulation and fitness

Ruedenauer, Fabian A.; Raubenheimer, David; Kessner‐Beierlein, Daniela; Grund‐Mueller, Nils; Noack, Lisa; Spaethe, Johannes; Leonhardt, Sara D.

doi:10.1111/ele.13454

Cited by 81 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…They should, therefore, be able to also taste them in the artificial nectar diets used in our study, which is a prerequisite for regulation of their intake. The lack of amino acid regulation suggested by this study's findings does, however, agree with another study from our group, which also found no regulation of amino acid intake in B. terrestris foraging on pollen [50], suggesting that B. terrestris may instead regulate other nutrients, such as lipids [50] or carbohydrates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…They may, however, have overeaten protein to obtain sufficient lipids or a suitable protein-lipid ratio, at least when fed the casein diet (according to the manufacturer, lipids are the main other component of casein), as indicated by the high protein consumption on this diet. In fact, lipids appear to be more strongly regulated by foraging bumble bees than carbohydrates [4,22,51] and may significantly affect colony [4,52,53] and also individual health [50]. Alternatively, the B. terrestris workers in our study may simply have ignored amino acids and may have focused on sugar intake only.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

Grund‐Mueller

Ruedenauer

Spaethe

et al. 2020

Insects

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Dietary macro-nutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, protein, and fat) are important for bee larval development and, thus, colony health and fitness. To which extent different diets (varying in macro-nutrient composition) affect adult bees and whether they can thrive on nectar as the sole amino acid source has, however, been little investigated. We investigated how diets varying in protein concentration and overall nutrient composition affected consumption, longevity, and breeding behavior of the buff-tailed bumble bee, Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Queenless micro-colonies were fed either natural nutrient sources (pollen), nearly pure protein (i.e., the milk protein casein), or sucrose solutions with low and with high essential amino acid content in concentrations as can be found in nectar. We observed micro-colonies for 110 days. We found that longevity was highest for pure pollen and lowest for pure sucrose solution and sucrose solution supplemented with amino acids in concentrations as found in the nectar of several plant species. Adding higher concentrations of amino acids to sucrose solution did only slightly increase longevity compared to sucrose alone. Consequently, sucrose solution with the applied concentrations and proportions of amino acids or other protein sources (e.g., casein) alone did not meet the nutritional needs of healthy adult bumble bees. In fact, longevity was highest and reproduction only successful in micro-colonies fed pollen. These results indicate that, in addition to carbohydrates and protein, adult bumble bees, like larvae, need further nutrients (e.g., lipids and micro-nutrients) for their well-being. An appropriate nutritional composition seemed to be best provided by floral pollen, suggesting that pollen is an essential dietary component not only for larvae but also for adult bees.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

Grund‐Mueller

Ruedenauer

Spaethe

et al. 2020

Insects

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“…Also, while low concentrations of fat in pollen did not affect pollen consumption by bumblebees, increased concentrations (e.g. above 60 µg/mg pollen) strongly reduced pollen consumption [37,69]. These findings may be explained by the adverse effect of excessive amounts of fat on the bees' survival.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…These findings may be explained by the adverse effect of excessive amounts of fat on the bees' survival. For example, survival of bumblebees was significantly lower when feeding on diets containing low P:F ratios and thus high fat concentrations than the survival of bumblebees feeding on diets containing higher P:F ratios [38,69]. Likewise, survival of honeybees (Apis mellifera) decreased with increasing dietary fat content [70].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the importance of the omega-6:3 ratio for cognitive performance [71] and the harmful effect of linoleic acid on honeybee survival and cognition may explain why, in our study, the proportion and concentration of linoleic acid decreased and the proportion of linolenic acid increased in larval provisions of stingless bees located in more biodiverse environments. Fatty acids are essential for bee survival and need to be taken up from pollen [72][73][74], but, at the same time, they appear to have severe adverse effects on (honey) bee health and cognition as soon as they exceed a specific concentration in pollen [69][70][71]. This strong dose-dependent effect of fat/fatty acids may explain why honeybee colonies balance deficiencies in fatty acids [39] and may suggest that stingless bees also regulate fat/fatty acid content/ratio when producing larval provisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Floral Species Richness Correlates with Changes in the Nutritional Quality of Larval Diets in a Stingless Bee

Trinkl

Kaluza

Wallace

et al. 2020

Insects

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Bees need food of appropriate nutritional quality to maintain their metabolic functions. They largely obtain all required nutrients from floral resources, i.e., pollen and nectar. However, the diversity, composition and nutritional quality of floral resources varies with the surrounding environment and can be strongly altered in human-impacted habitats. We investigated whether differences in plant species richness as found in the surrounding environment correlated with variation in the floral diversity and nutritional quality of larval provisions (i.e., mixtures of pollen, nectar and salivary secretions) composed by the mass-provisioning stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Apidae: Meliponini). We found that the floral diversity of larval provisions increased with increasing plant species richness. The sucrose and fat (total fatty acid) content and the proportion and concentration of the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid decreased, whereas the proportion of the omega-3 fatty acid linolenic acid increased with increasing plant species richness. Protein (total amino acid) content and amino acid composition did not change. The protein to fat (P:F) ratio, known to affect bee foraging, increased on average by more than 40% from plantations to forests and gardens, while the omega-6:3 ratio, known to negatively affect cognitive performance, decreased with increasing plant species richness. Our results suggest that plant species richness may support T. carbonaria colonies by providing not only a continuous resource supply (as shown in a previous study), but also floral resources of high nutritional quality.

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Pollen‐feeding behavior of diverse insects on Geranium delavayi, a flower with large, accessible pollen grains

Hao

Huang

2023

American J of Botany

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Premise: Why have pollen grains evolved to be exceptionally large in some species? Pollen-feeding hypothesis suggests that if the proportion of pollen amounts for feeding is reduced in a flower, the low allocation to pollen number would allow pollen grains to be larger. Methods: To examine whether species with large pollen grains experience low pollen consumption, the behavior of insects feeding on nectar and pollen was observed and pollen transfer efficiency was estimated for four visitor types in Geranium delavayi. To see whether bees actively collected pollen, the numbers of grains in pollen baskets and on the body were compared. Both nutritional value (total protein and lipid) and chemical defense (phenolic metabolites) in pollen against pollen feeders were measured.Results: Bumblebees and honeybees foraged for nectar, rarely groomed pollen into corbiculae, and had >5× higher pollen transfer efficiency than smaller solitary bees and flies, which were pollen eaters that removed more pollen but deposited less. Pollen grains were characterized by low protein and high lipid content with a low protein-lipid ratio, an unfavorable combination for bumblebees. Three secondary metabolites were significantly higher in pollen grains (7.77 mg/g) than in petals (1.08 mg/g) or in nectar (0.44 mg/g), suggesting stronger chemical defense in pollen. Conclusions: Our results indicated that large bees took nectar but little of the nutritionally poor and highly toxic pollen. These data support one prediction of the pollen-feeding hypothesis, that species with few and large pollen grains would also have low pollen-consumption rates.

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Best be(e) on low fat: linking nutrient perception, regulation and fitness

Cited by 81 publications

References 77 publications

Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

Floral Species Richness Correlates with Changes in the Nutritional Quality of Larval Diets in a Stingless Bee

Pollen‐feeding behavior of diverse insects on Geranium delavayi, a flower with large, accessible pollen grains

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