Resisting majesty: Apis cerana, has lower antennal sensitivity and decreased attraction to queen mandibular pheromone than Apis mellifera

Abstract

Resisting majesty: Apis cerana, has lower antennal sensitivity and decreased attraction to queen mandibular pheromone than Apis mellifera In highly social bees, queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) is vital for colony life. Both Apis cerana (Ac) and Apis mellifera (Am) share an evolutionarily conserved set of QMP compounds: (E)-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid (9-ODA), (E)-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid (9-HDA), (E)-10-hydroxy-dec-2-enoic acid (10-HDA), 10-hydroxy-decanoic acid (10-HDAA), and methyl p-hydroxybenzoate (HOB) found at similar levels. However, evidence suggests there may be species-specific sensitivity differences to QMP compounds because Ac workers have higher levels of ovarian activation than Am workers. Using electroantennograms, we found species-specific sensitivity differences for a blend of the major QMP compounds and three individual compounds (9-HDA, 10-HDAA, and 10-HDA). As predicted, Am was more sensitive than Ac in all cases (1.3-to 2.7-fold higher responses). There were also species differences in worker retinue attraction to three compounds (9-HDA, HOB, and 10-HDA). In all significantly different cases, Am workers were 4.5-to 6.2-fold more strongly attracted than Ac workers were. Thus, Ac workers responded less strongly to QMP than Am workers, and 9-HDA and 10-HDA consistently elicited stronger antennal and retinue formation responses.Honey bee queens produce a pheromone, queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), which plays a central role in colony life and has multiple effects, depending upon the receivers and the context [1][2][3] . QMP can act as a sex pheromone and attract drones to virgin queens 3,4 . Within the colony, QMP signals the queen's presence, inhibits worker ovarian development 5,6 , and maintains normal colony activity 7 . Interestingly, workers of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana (Ac), have higher rates of ovarian activation than workers of the other Apis species, including A. mellifera ligustica (Am) and A. florea (Af) 8,9 . In colonies with a normal egg-laying queen (queenright colonies), about 5% of Ac workers have activated ovaries [10][11][12] . In comparison, 0.02% of Am workers and 0.01% of Af workers have activated ovaries 10,13 . Sakagami and Akahra (1958) similarly reported that about 10-20% of Ac workers contained mature eggs in their ovaries 14 . In contrast, about one Am worker in 1,000 contains visible eggs and only one worker in 10,000 contains a full-sized egg 8 . QMP is also essential for creating the worker cluster (retinue) around the queen 3,10,13 . The attraction exerted by QMP reflects its central role and the importance of this retinue for grooming and feeding the queen and distributing QMP throughout the colony 7 . Aside from daily care, this retinue has implications for queen survival. For example, Am workers are more attracted to higher-as compared to lower-quality queens, and low queen attractiveness may contribute to queen replacement, a process in which workers play can play a role 15 . Most, QMP retinue studies have focused on Am 7 , but QMP also elicits retinue at...

Analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster anti‐ovarian response to honey bee queen mandibular pheromone

“…In our component analysis, 10HDA was used as a substitute for 9HDA. 10HDA is a minor component of honey bee QMP: 1/50th of the amount of 9HDA is present (Dong et al ., ). In the study of the Asian hive bee, 10HDA was administered at 1 Qeq, which is a much lower concentration than 1 Qeq of 9HDA and much lower than we used when substituting 9HDA for 10HDA, which may explain why 10HDA did not suppress Asian hive bee oogenesis (Tan et al ., ).…”

“…In the study of the Asian hive bee, 10HDA was administered at 1 Qeq, which is a much lower concentration than 1 Qeq of 9HDA and much lower than we used when substituting 9HDA for 10HDA, which may explain why 10HDA did not suppress Asian hive bee oogenesis (Tan et al ., ). However, at a similar microgram quantity as 9HDA, 10HDA does stimulate an antennal response and retinue behaviour (Dong et al ., ). In addition, both 9HDA and 10HDA activate glomeruli in the worker olfactory lobe (Carcaud et al ., ).…”

“…In colonies of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) together with brood pheromone (Arnold et al, 1994;Traynor et al, 2014) suppress worker reproduction and render the worker caste reproductively altruistic (Winston, 1987;Visscher, 1989). The composition of this complex pheromone has been worked out (Slessor et al, 1988;Keeling et al, 2003;Dong et al, 2017), but the roles of the individual components in worker ovary suppression remains unclear for even the well-studied Western honey bee (Slessor et al, 2005). However, 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid (9ODA) and 9-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (9HDA) are each sufficient to suppress oogenesis in the Asian hive bee, Apis cerana (Tan et al, 2015).…”

Pheromonal Regulation of the Reproductive Division of Labor in Social Insects

“…The knock-down of Orco, an olfactory co-receptor, impairs a series of social behavior including worker dueling to become gametes in Harpegnathos saltator ants ( Yan et al, 2017 ). Electroantennography demonstrated that workers respond specifically to the putative QPs in several species, such as Pachycondyla inversa , Apis cerana , and A. mellifera ( D’Ettorre et al, 2004 ; Dong et al, 2017 ). Moreover, single sensilla recording in ants verified that QP candidate CHCs are responded by basiconic sensilla ( Ozaki et al, 2005 ; Sharma et al, 2015 ).…”

Electroantennogram reveals a strong correlation between the passion of honeybee and the properties of the volatile

“…The response of an antenna to a volatile compound varies depending on the time of the day because the olfactory response and the pulse‐tracking ability of the antenna follows the circadian rhythm of the honeybee (Nagari, Szyszka, Galizia, & Bloch, 2017). There are also species‐specific variations in the responsiveness of antennae to the same odor; for example, Apis cerana consistently exhibits weaker antennal responses to the mandibular pheromone of the queen bee compared to the antennal responses of Apis mellifera (Dong et al, 2017). The EAG responses of honeybee antennae to varying concentrations of six common plant volatiles were previously evaluated, which showed that these responses can be utilized as odor probes (Bhowmik, Lakare, Sen, & Bhadra, 2016; Lambin, Déglise, & Gauthier, 2005).…”