Queen mandibular gland pheromone influences worker honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) foraging ontogeny and juvenile hormone titers

Pankiw, Tanya; Zhi, Huang; Winston, Mark L.; Robinson, Gene E.

doi:10.1016/s0022-1910(98)00040-7

Cited by 202 publications

(178 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Workers also have special, Btool-like^organs that allow them to perform these duties, such as a pollen press and a corbicula, a long proboscis, large hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands, wax glands, Nasanov's gland, and a straight and barbed sting. On the other hand, queens feature the complete morphophysiological set of a reproductive machine, with large ovaries and spermatheca and developed secretory glands for scents that control workers' behaviour (Snodgrass 1910;Michener 1974;Pankiw et al 1998, Hoover et al 2003; see also in Miklos and Maleszka 2011). Figure 1.…”

Section: Honeybee Diphenism and Caste Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ontogenetic saga of a social brain

et al. 2017

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-Queen and worker honeybees differ in a number of life-history traits, including the size of certain brain regions, such as the mushroom bodies (MBs), which are larger in workers. However, during the larval period, the differential feeding offered to queens promotes faster brain development. As a result, members of this caste have larger brains than workers. This developmental process is accompanied by the higher expression of several neurogenic genes. Nonetheless, a caste-specific shift in relative brain growth occurs during the next developmental stage. The suggested molecular underpinnings of this phenomenon are variations in hormonal environments, which may mediate higher cell death rates in the queen's brain than in the workers'. The brain development of this highly eusocial bee is thus a paradoxical case that may represent an evolutionary by-product of the reproductive division of labour in species with female size diphenism.Apis mellifera / honey bee / development / caste / phenotypic plasticity

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Section: Honeybee Diphenism and Caste Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ontogenetic saga of a social brain

et al. 2017

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“…We obtained additional evidence for atypical regulation of insulin signaling by annotating energy metabolism pathways with results from three previously published microarray experiments (36,37). These experiments produced three lists of genes that were differentially expressed: (i) in the brains of nurse bees and foragers; (ii) in response to methoprene, which accelerates the onset age of foraging (23); and (iii) in response to queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), which delays the onset age of foraging (38). Insulin signaling both regulates and is regulated by changes in energy metabolism, and generally there is a positive correlation between insulin signaling and energy metabolism gene expression in a variety of species and tissues (39 -41).…”

Section: Experiments 4: Up-regulation Of Brain Energy Metabolism Pathwmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Ament

Corona

Pollock

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

307

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It has been proposed that one route of behavioral evolution involves novel regulation of conserved genes. Age-related division of labor in honey bee colonies, a highly derived behavioral system, involves the performance of different feeding-related tasks by different groups of individuals. Older bees acquire the colony's food by foraging for nectar and pollen, and the younger ''nurse'' bees feed larvae processed foods. The transition from hive work to foraging has been shown to be socially regulated and associated both with decreases in abdominal lipid stores and with increases in brain expression of genes implicated in feeding behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Here we show that division of labor is influenced by a canonical regulator of food intake and energy balance in solitary species, the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway. Foragers had higher levels of IIS gene expression in the brain and abdomen than did nurses, despite their low lipid stores. These differences are likely nutritionally mediated because manipulations that induced low lipid stores in young bees also up-regulated these genes. Changes in IIS also causally influenced the timing of behavioral maturation: inhibition of the insulin-related target of rapamycin pathway delayed the onset of foraging in a seasonally dependent manner. In addition, pathway analyses of microarray data revealed that nurses and foragers differ in brain energy metabolism gene expression, but the differences are opposite predictions based on their insulin-signaling status. These results suggest that changes in the regulation of the IIS pathway are associated with social behavior.Apis mellifera ͉ behavioral maturation ͉ social insect ͉ nutrition ͉ foraging A n important problem in biology is to understand the molecular basis for complex behavior. It has been proposed that one route of behavioral evolution involves novel regulation of conserved genes (1). It is well established that orthologous sets of genes regulate the development of body plans across taxa (2), but this idea has only recently begun to be tested for behavior (3,4).Age-related division of labor in honey bee colonies involves the performance of different food-related tasks by different groups of individuals. Nurse bees feed brood for the first 1-2 weeks of adult life, process and store food for another week, and then shift to foraging for nectar and pollen at Ϸ2-3 weeks of age (5). This division of labor is socially regulated; bees speed up, slow down, or reverse their maturation in response to colony needs (6). Although the mechanics of foraging in honey bees are similar to food-gathering in solitary bees, there are fundamental differences. Honey bees forage to improve the fitness of the colony rather than their own; they collect food when their colony needs it. Honey bees feed on honey before exiting the hive to fuel their foraging flights, and most of the food obtained on a foraging trip is not for their own sustenance.We hypothesized that the regulation of honey bee behavioral mat...

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“…1) and primes bees to perform colonyrelated tasks (4,5). The retinue of workers that attend the queen facilitates the distribution of QMP throughout the colony, where it inhibits the rearing of new queens (6), helps prevent the development of worker ovaries (7), influences comb-building activities, (8) and affects the biosynthesis of juvenile hormone (9) [and hence the age-related behavioral ontogeny of recipient workers (10)]. Despite QMP's central role in the normal functioning and organization of honey bee colonies, very little is known about the cellular mechanisms through which it operates.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Queen pheromone modulates brain dopamine function in worker honey bees

Beggs

Glendining²,

Marechal³

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

153

139

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Honey bee queens produce a sophisticated array of chemical signals (pheromones) that influence both the behavior and physiology of their nest mates. Most striking are the effects of queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), a chemical blend that induces young workers to feed and groom the queen and primes bees to perform colony-related tasks. But how does this pheromone operate at the cellular level? This study reveals that QMP has profound effects on dopamine pathways in the brain, pathways that play a central role in behavioral regulation and motor control. In young worker bees, dopamine levels, levels of dopamine receptor gene expression, and cellular responses to this amine are all affected by QMP. We identify homovanillyl alcohol as a key contributor to these effects and provide evidence linking QMPinduced changes in the brain to changes at a behavioral level. This study offers exciting insights into the mechanisms through which QMP operates and a deeper understanding of the queen's ability to regulate the behavior of her offspring.Apis mellifera ͉ biogenic amines ͉ neuroethology ͉ neuromodulation ͉ pheromonal communication C omplex social interactions require systems of communication that are reliable and unambiguous. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, employs Ͼ50 substances to communicate with and to organize its colony, and the information that is conveyed between colony members is both subtle and sophisticated (1-3).Maintaining colony organization is a primary role of the queen, whose pheromones enable her to regulate not only the behavior but also the physiology of her nest mates. The most striking effects are those of queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), a chemical blend that induces young workers to feed and groom the queen (Fig. 1) and primes bees to perform colonyrelated tasks (4, 5). The retinue of workers that attend the queen facilitates the distribution of QMP throughout the colony, where it inhibits the rearing of new queens (6), helps prevent the development of worker ovaries (7), influences comb-building activities, (8) and affects the biosynthesis of juvenile hormone (9) [and hence the age-related behavioral ontogeny of recipient workers (10)]. Despite QMP's central role in the normal functioning and organization of honey bee colonies, very little is known about the cellular mechanisms through which it operates.We were intrigued by one of the key components of QMP, homovanillyl alcohol (HVA) (4). HVA (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol) bears a striking structural resemblance to dopamine (see Fig. 1 Right), a biogenic amine that plays a central role in insect behavioral regulation and motor control (11-18). The presence of this compound within the pheromone blend suggested to us that dopamine function in the brain of recipient bees might be affected by exposure to QMP. To test this hypothesis, we exposed young workers to QMP and examined its effects on brain dopamine levels, levels of dopamine receptor gene expression, and cellular responses to this amine. The results provide compelling evidence that QMP al...

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Queen mandibular gland pheromone influences worker honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) foraging ontogeny and juvenile hormone titers

Cited by 202 publications

References 46 publications

The ontogenetic saga of a social brain

The ontogenetic saga of a social brain

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Queen pheromone modulates brain dopamine function in worker honey bees

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