Longevity extension of worker honey bees (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) by royal jelly: optimal dose and active ingredient

Yang, Wenchao; Tian, Yuanyuan; Han, M. T.; Xing, Miao

doi:10.7717/peerj.3118

Cited by 43 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…Similarly, the protein titer of the hemolymph is a good indicator of a diet’s value to bees [ 76 ]; nevertheless, it is only one of many such indicators, making conduction of several bioassays measuring different parameters necessary to determine the value of a given diet to honey bees [ 77 ]. Some examples include hypopharyngeal glands development [ 24 , 62 , 78 ] and protein content [ 79 ], ovarian development [ 24 , 80 ], longevity [ 81 , 82 ], and fat body weight [ 83 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

2018

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BackgroundBees are confronting several environmental challenges, including the intermingled effects of malnutrition and disease. Intuitively, pollen is the healthiest nutritional choice, however, commercial substitutes, such as Bee-Pro and MegaBee, are widely used. Herein we examined how feeding natural and artificial diets shapes transcription in the abdomen of the honey bee, and how transcription shifts in combination with Nosema parasitism.ResultsGene ontology enrichment revealed that, compared with poor diet (carbohydrates [C]), bees fed pollen (P > C), Bee-Pro (B > C), and MegaBee (M > C) showed a broad upregulation of metabolic processes, especially lipids; however, pollen feeding promoted more functions, and superior proteolysis. The superiority of the pollen diet was also evident through the remarkable overexpression of vitellogenin in bees fed pollen instead of MegaBee or Bee-Pro. Upregulation of bioprocesses under carbohydrates feeding compared to pollen (C > P) provided a clear poor nutritional status, uncovering stark expression changes that were slight or absent relatively to Bee-Pro (C > B) or MegaBee (C > M). Poor diet feeding (C > P) induced starvation response genes and hippo signaling pathway, while it repressed growth through different mechanisms. Carbohydrate feeding (C > P) also elicited ‘adult behavior’, and developmental processes suggesting transition to foraging. Finally, it altered the ‘circadian rhythm’, reflecting the role of this mechanism in the adaptation to nutritional stress in mammals.Nosema-infected bees fed pollen compared to carbohydrates (PN > CN) upheld certain bioprocesses of uninfected bees (P > C). Poor nutritional status was more apparent against pollen (CN > PN) than Bee-Pro (CN > BN) or MegaBee (CN > MN). Nosema accentuated the effects of malnutrition since more starvation-response genes and stress response mechanisms were upregulated in CN > PN compared to C > P. The bioprocess ‘Macromolecular complex assembly’ was also enriched in CN > PN, and involved genes associated with human HIV and/or influenza, thus providing potential candidates for bee-Nosema interactions. Finally, the enzyme Duox emerged as essential for guts defense in bees, similarly to Drosophila.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence of the superior nutritional status of bees fed pollen instead of artificial substitutes in terms of overall health, even in the presence of a pathogen.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-5007-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

2018

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“…As brood develop, they primarily consume jelly, which is a nutritionally-rich food source produced and delivered by nurse bees. Sublethal neonicotinoids and fungicides reduce the size of the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands where it is synthesized (Hatjina et al, 2013;Renzi et al, 2016b;Zaluski et al, 2017), which in turn decreases jelly secretions and may lead to reduced longevity and smaller honey bee populations (Yang et al, 2017). The jelly produced may further be deficient in major proteins (Wu et al, 2017) vital for honey bee development and physiology (Buttstedt et al, 2014).…”

Section: Pesticides Can Obstruct Reproduction and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Effects of Sublethal Pesticide Exposure on Honey Bees: A Role for Probiotics as Mediators of Environmental Stress

et al. 2020

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Managed populations of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) support the production of a global food supply. This important role in modern agriculture has rendered honey bees vulnerable to the noxious effects of anthropogenic stressors such as pesticides. Although the deleterious outcomes of lethal pesticide exposure on honey bee health and performance are apparent, the ominous role of sublethal pesticide exposure is an emerging concern as well. Here, we use a data harvesting approach to better understand the toxicological effects of pesticide exposure across the honey bee life cycle. Through compiling adult-and larval-specific median lethal dose (LD 50) values from 93 published data sources, LD 50 estimates for insecticides, herbicides, acaricides, and fungicides are highly variable across studies, especially for herbicides and fungicides, which are underrepresented in the meta-data set. Alongside major discrepancies in these reported values, further examination of the compiled data suggested that LD 50 may not be an ideal metric for honey bee risk assessment. We also discuss how sublethal effects of pesticide exposure, which are not typically measured in LD 50 studies, can diminish honey bee reproduction, immunity, cognition, and overall physiological functioning, leading to suboptimal honey bee performance and population reduction. In consideration of actionable solutions to mitigate the effects of sublethal pesticide exposure, we have identified the potential for probiotic supplementation as a promising strategy that can be easily incorporated alongside current agricultural infrastructure and apicultural management practices. Probiotic supplementation is regularly employed in apiculture but the potential for evidence-based targeted approaches has not yet been fully explored within a formal toxicological context. We discuss the benefits, practical considerations, and limitations for the use and delivery of probiotics to hives. Ultimately, by subverting the sublethal effects of pesticides we can help improve the long-term survival of these critical pollinators.

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“…Royal jelly is a mixture of secretions of the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of worker bees that provides both nutrition and pathogen protection to larvae (Yang et al, 2017). It is also the exclusive food source of the queen bee; in fact, the continuous feeding of royal jelly to an individual larva sets off developmental pathways in the organism and causes its transformation into the queen.…”

Section: Royal Jellymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Pollination: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) as Zootherapy Keystone Species

Easton‐Calabria¹,

Demary

Oner³

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The keystone species concept is a useful ecological concept to explain how some species exert a strong force on their community structure; this paper strives to expand the definition to include species that are used in zootherapy, i.e., the use of animals for medicinal purposes. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) can be considered a zootherapy keystone species that exerts a strong impact on other trophic levels through their products that relate to disease resistance. Honey bee products (i.e., honey, propolis, venom, beeswax, bee bread, and royal jelly) confer pathogen/pest resistance. Each of these products have been shown to exhibit antipathogenic properties and to act as a colony-level defense mechanism against disease. The phenomenon of a collective immune defense in social insects, termed social immunity, has evolved for defense against pathogens which spread easily in highly dense eusocial systems, such as that of honey bees. In apitherapy, a type of zootherapy, humans can use honey bee products to improve their health via pathogen resistance. The implication of these phenomena is that honey bees, through their products, can manipulate the microbial community structure both within the hive and outside the hive when these products are used in apitherapy. Because of their importance to human health, zootherapy keystone species should be a top priority in terms of conservation.

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Longevity extension of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) by royal jelly: optimal dose and active ingredient

Cited by 43 publications

References 51 publications

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

Understanding the Effects of Sublethal Pesticide Exposure on Honey Bees: A Role for Probiotics as Mediators of Environmental Stress

Beyond Pollination: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) as Zootherapy Keystone Species

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