Royal jelly in focus

Kurth, Thomas; Kretschmar, Susanne; Buttstedt, Anja

doi:10.1007/s00040-018-0662-3

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…We predict that eusociality provides a new context for signaling systems such that the nature of the chemical signaling among nestmates can be more elaborate than social cues in non-eusocial species 23 . We predict that the transfer of direct mediators of insect physiology among nestmates (microRNAs or chromatin remodelers in Apis royal jelly 143 , hormones in nurse feeding fluid 27 ) will not induce antagonistic responses observed in solitary insects (such as sex conflict in Drosophila 144…”

Section: Gene Regulatory Network and Signaling Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed physiology and the molecular basis of social life in eusocial insects

Friedman

Johnson

Linksvayer

2020

Hormones and Behavior

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The traditional focus of physiological and functional genomic research is on molecular processes that play out within a single body. In contrast, when social interactions occur, molecular and behavioral responses in interacting individuals can lead to physiological processes that are distributed across multiple individuals. In eusocial insect colonies, such multi-body processes are tightly integrated, involving social communication mechanisms that regulate the physiology of colony members. As a result, conserved physiological mechanisms, for example related to pheromone detection and neural signaling pathways, are deployed in novel contexts and regulate emergent colony traits during the evolutionary origin and elaboration of social complexity. Here we review conceptual frameworks for organismal and colony physiology, and highlight functional genomic, physiological, and behavioral research exploring how colony-level traits arise from physical and chemical interactions among nestmates. We highlight mechanistic work exploring how colony traits arise from physical and chemical interactions among physiologically-specialized nestmates of 1 various developmental stages. We consider similarities and differences between organismal and colony physiology, and make specific predictions based on a decentralized perspective on the function and evolution of colony traits. Integrated models of colony physiological function will be useful to address fundamental questions related to the evolution and ecology of collective behavior in natural systems. Colony Organization = Social Anatomy + Social PhysiologyEusocial colonial insects, such as ants, termites, and honey bees, thrive across almost all terrestrial ecosystems 1,2 . The ecological success of these species rests in their use of colony traits, such as nest architecture 3,4 and collective foraging behavior 5-7 , which are functionally absent in solitary insects yet keenly developed in eusocial taxa. In the eusocial insects, division of labor (DOL) describes how nestmates vary in their form and function. DOL formalizes the extent of specialization among nestmates in the performance of tasks, usually with a physiological or morphological basis or arising from nestmate age (temporal polyethism) and experience [8][9][10][11] . We build off of the conceptual framework of Johnson & Linksvayer 12 that considers eusocial colony organization from the perspective of social anatomy & social physiology : Social anatomy is the notion that colonies are composed of specialized parts with limited roles, like the organs of an individual animal. Specialized colony anatomy allows for greater productivity and efficiency for the completion of many tasks.Physiological specialization exists at multiple levels within the colony. Queen-worker specialization allows for an increased reproductive output of queens alongside increased work output from workers, from the same diploid female genome 13 .Subspecialization among workers can manifest as permanent variation in body morphology 14 , temporal polyet...

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Section: Gene Regulatory Network and Signaling Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed physiology and the molecular basis of social life in eusocial insects

Friedman

Johnson

Linksvayer

2020

Hormones and Behavior

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“…However, functions go far beyond that: An oligomeric form of MRJP1 (oligoMRJP1) builds a pH‐dependent fibrillary network (Buttstedt et al, ) in complex with apisimin, a serine–valine‐rich small protein that is another proteinaceous component of royal jelly (Bíliková et al, ). This fibrillary network confers the needed viscosity to royal jelly to prevent queen larvae falling out of their vertically oriented queen cells (Buttstedt et al, ; Kurth, Kretschmar, & Buttstedt, ). In addition, the complex of oligoMRJP1/apisimin binds 24‐methylenecholesterol and provides the developing larvae with essential sterols (Tian et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

Dobritzsch

Aumer

Fuszard

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The genome of the western honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) harbors nine transcribed major royal jelly protein genes ( mrjp1‐9 ) which originate from a single‐copy precursor via gene duplication. The first MRJP was identified in royal jelly, a secretion of the bees' hypopharyngeal glands that is used by young worker bees, called nurses, to feed developing larvae. Thus, MRJPs are frequently assumed to mainly have functions for developing bee larvae and to be expressed in the food glands of nurse bees. In‐depth knowledge on caste‐ and age‐specific role and abundance of MRJPs is missing. We here show, using combined quantitative real‐time PCR with quantitative mass spectrometry, that expression and protein amount of mrjp1‐5 and mrjp7 show an age‐dependent pattern in worker's hypopharyngeal glands as well as in brains, albeit lower relative abundance in brains than in glands. Expression increases after hatching until the nurse bee period and is followed by a decrease in older workers that forage for plant products. Mrjp6 expression deviates considerably from the expression profiles of the other mrjps , does not significantly vary in the brain, and shows its highest expression in the hypopharyngeal glands during the forager period. Furthermore, it is the only mrjp of which transcript abundance does not correlate with protein amount. Mrjp8 and mrjp9 show, compared to the other mrjps, a very low expression in both tissues. Albeit mrjp8 mRNA was detected via qPCR, the protein was not quantified in any of the tissues. Due to the occurrence of MRJP8 and MRJP9 in other body parts of the bees, for example, the venom gland, they might not have a hypopharyngeal gland‐ or brain‐specific function but rather functions in other tissues. Thus, mrjp1‐7 but not mrjp8 and mrjp9 might be involved in the regulation of phenotypic plasticity and age polyethism in worker honeybees.

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“…This suggests that oligoMRJP1/apisimin is still folded at elevated temperatures at near neutral pH and illustrates that differential scanning fluorimetry is not an appropriate method to analyze the stability of the complex of oligoMRJP1 and apisimin. In addition, no strong difference was observed between fluorescence curves recorded above and below pH 5.0 although oligoMRJP1/apisimin starts to assemble into fibrillary structures below pH 5.0 16,17 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…As a peculiarity, MRJP1 can occur as a monomer (monoMRJP1) or as an oligomer in complex with apisimin (oligoMRJP1/apisimin) 9–12 . The functions of MRJPs reach from providing essential nutrients 6 over having antibacterial effects 13,14 and binding RNA 15 to increasing the viscosity of the food jelly by fibril formation of oligoMRJP1/apisimin at acidic pH 4.0 16,17 . MRJPs share a high amino acid sequence similarity, and thus pH might also play an important role for the other MRJPs as they do indeed encounter a large pH range in the course of their lifetime: The proteins are synthesized in the hypopharyngeal glands of nursing bees 18,19 as secretory proteins and are thus directly translated into the endoplasmic reticulum of the secretory cells at a pH value of around 7.0 20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

pH-dependent stability of honey bee (Apis mellifera) major royal jelly proteins

Mureșan

Buttstedt

2019

Sci Rep

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Honey bee larval food jelly is a secretion of the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of young worker bees that take care of the growing brood in the hive. Food jelly is fed to all larvae (workers, drones and queens) and as royal jelly to the queen bee for her entire life. Up to 18% of the food jelly account for proteins the majority of which belongs to the major royal jelly protein (MRJP) family. These proteins are produced in the hypopharyngeal glands at a pH value of 7.0. Before being fed to the larvae, they are mixed with the fatty acids secreted by the mandibular glands of the worker bees resulting at a pH of 4.0 in the food jelly. Thus, MRJPs are exposed to a broad pH range from their site of synthesis to the actual secreted larval food. We therefore determined the pH-dependent stability of MRJP1, MRJP2 and MRJP3 purified from royal jelly using differential scanning fluorimetry. All MRJPs were much more stable at acidic pH values compared to neutral ones with all proteins showing highest stability at pH 4.0 or 4.5, the native pH of royal jelly.

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Royal jelly in focus

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Distributed physiology and the molecular basis of social life in eusocial insects

Distributed physiology and the molecular basis of social life in eusocial insects

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

pH-dependent stability of honey bee (Apis mellifera) major royal jelly proteins

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