Collection of volatiles from honeybee larvae and adults enclosed on brood frames

Carroll, Mark J.; Duehl, Adrian J.

doi:10.1007/s13592-012-0153-x

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…β-ocimene is a well-known brood pheromone which plays multiple roles in regulating worker behaviour and anatomy243435363738. Young larvae normally release β-ocimene to stimulate workers to feed them24, with levels tapering off with age.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Odorant cues linked to social immunity induce lateralized antenna stimulation in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

McAfee

Collins

Madilao

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Hygienic behaviour (HB) is a social immunity trait in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) whereby workers detect, uncap and remove unhealthy brood, improving disease resistance in the colony. This is clearly economically valuable; however, the molecular mechanism behind it is not well understood. The freeze-killed brood (FKB) assay is the conventional method of HB selection, so we compared odour profiles of FKB and live brood to find candidate HB-inducing odours. Surprisingly, we found that significantly more brood pheromone (β-ocimene) was released from FKB. β-ocimene abundance also positively correlated with HB, suggesting there could be a brood effect contributing to overall hygiene. Furthermore, we found that β-ocimene stimulated worker antennae in a dose-dependent manner, with the left antennae responding significantly stronger than right antennae in hygienic bees, but not in non-hygienic bees. Five other unidentifiable compounds were differentially emitted from FKB which could also be important for HB. We also compared odour profiles of Varroa-infested brood to healthy brood and found an overall interactive effect between developmental stage and infestation, but specific odours did not drive these differences. Overall, the data we present here is an important foundation on which to build our understanding the molecular mechanism behind this complex behaviour.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Odorant cues linked to social immunity induce lateralized antenna stimulation in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

McAfee

Collins

Madilao

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…E- β -ocimene was first identified from mated honey bee queens 24 and could promote the acceptance of introduced queens to honey bee colony 25 , and then it was detected from young brood and even brood frames 26 27 . A previous study showed that it also accelerates the development of worker hypopharyngeal glands, which are the main glands for secreting royal jelly, and promotes workers to start their foraging earlier 22 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Starving honey bee (Apis mellifera) larvae signal pheromonally to worker bees

Zhang

Jiang

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Cooperative brood care is diagnostic of animal societies. This is particularly true for the advanced social insects, and the honey bee is the best understood of the insect societies. A brood pheromone signaling the presence of larvae in a bee colony has been characterised and well studied, but here we explored whether honey bee larvae actively signal their food needs pheromonally to workers. We show that starving honey bee larvae signal to workers via increased production of the volatile pheromone E-β-ocimene. Analysis of volatile pheromones produced by food-deprived and fed larvae with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that starving larvae produced more E-β-ocimene. Behavioural analyses showed that adding E-β-ocimene to empty cells increased the number of worker visits to those cells, and similarly adding E-β-ocimene to larvae increased worker visitation rate to the larvae. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis identified 3 genes in the E-β-ocimene biosynthetic pathway that were upregulated in larvae following 30 minutes of starvation, and these genes also upregulated in 2-day old larvae compared to 4-day old larvae (2-day old larvae produce the most E-β-ocimene). This identifies a pheromonal mechanism by which brood can beg for food from workers to influence the allocation of resources within the colony.

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“…The aldehydes are emitted by adult worker bees [17] and virgin queens [18], present in enclosed brood combs containing active larvae and attending workers [1]. Our results found that aldehyde contents per unit weight were higher in larval food than in larvae.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

GC-MS Investigation of Volatiles from Honeybee Worker Larvae and Larval Food at Different Instars

Zhang¹,

Hou²,

Y³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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(E)-β-ocimene was the only found volatile chemical emitted by whole, live worker larvae of Apis mellifera L. by sampling in the vapor phase. While in addition to (E)-β-ocimene, there is evidence for the existence of other volatiles; but the changes of their composition and contents remain unknown during larval development, as are their differences from larvae to larval food. This is the main purpose of the study. We investigated volatile components of worker larvae and larval food using solid phase dynamic extraction (SPDE) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Nine compounds were identified with certainty and six tentatively, consisting of terpenoids, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, ester and ketone. The contents of volatiles of the second-instar worker larvae differ greatly from larvae of other stages mainly attributable to terpenoids, which made the second-instar worker larvae had significantly higher amounts of overall volatiles. Larval food contained significantly higher amounts of aldehydes and hydrocarbons than the corresponding larvae from the fourth to fifth-instar. We discovered volatiles in worker larvae and their food which were never reported before; we also mastered the change of these volatiles’ contents during larval development.

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Collection of volatiles from honeybee larvae and adults enclosed on brood frames

Cited by 31 publications

References 48 publications

Odorant cues linked to social immunity induce lateralized antenna stimulation in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Odorant cues linked to social immunity induce lateralized antenna stimulation in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Starving honey bee (Apis mellifera) larvae signal pheromonally to worker bees

GC-MS Investigation of Volatiles from Honeybee Worker Larvae and Larval Food at Different Instars

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