The life of the bee,

Maeterlinck, Maurice; Sutro, Alfred

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.57680

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As a premier example of diphenic development, these phenotypes have been subject to intense study over the last several decades [6], [7], [17], [18]. The association between nutrition and developmental fate has been recognized for more than 100 years [19], but the gene regulatory link between nutrient status and caste determination has remained unidentified. Therefore, the insight that amTOR signaling can regulate the honey bee queen-worker dimorphism provides the first evidence for an answer to this much studied question in developmental biology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Making of a Queen: TOR Pathway Is a Key Player in Diphenic Caste Development

et al. 2007

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BackgroundHoney bees (Apis mellifera) provide a principal example of diphenic development. Excess feeding of female larvae results in queens (large reproductives). Moderate diet yields workers (small helpers). The signaling pathway that links provisioning to female developmental fate is not understood, yet we reasoned that it could include TOR (target of rapamycin), a nutrient- and energy-sensing kinase that controls organismal growth.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere, the role of Apis mellifera TOR (amTOR) in caste determination is examined by rapamycin/FK506 pharmacology and RNA interference (RNAi) gene knockdown. We show that in queen-destined larvae, the TOR inhibitor rapamycin induces the development of worker characters that are blocked by the antagonist FK506. Further, queen fate is associated with elevated activity of the Apis mellifera TOR encoding gene, amTOR, and amTOR gene knockdown blocks queen fate and results in individuals with worker morphology.Conclusions/SignificanceA much-studied insect dimorphism, thereby, can be governed by the TOR pathway. Our results present the first evidence for a role of TOR in diphenic development, and suggest that adoption of this ancestral nutrient-sensing cascade is one evolutionary pathway for morphological caste differentiation in social insects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Making of a Queen: TOR Pathway Is a Key Player in Diphenic Caste Development

et al. 2007

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“…Colony brood-rearing, foraging and reproduction, however, decline in late summer and fall (Sekiguchi and Sakagami, 1966; Free and Racey, 1968; Sakagami and Fukuda, 1968; Winston, 1987). The queen and workers survive the unfavorable season inside the protected nest on stored resources, while remaining males are killed (Maeterlinck, 1901). This life-history results in a bimodal lifespan-distribution of worker cohorts, with a summer bee lifespan of 3–8 weeks, and a diutinus lifespan of up to 280 days (Maurizio, 1950; Amdam and Omholt, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nurse’s load: Early-life exposure to brood-rearing affects behavior and lifespan in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Amdam

Rueppell

Fondrk

et al. 2009

Experimental Gerontology

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Long-lived honey bees (Apis mellifera) develop in fall. This pattern may be explained by reduced nurse loads. When the amount of brood in colonies declines as a function of adverse foraging conditions, adult bees build up surplus nutrient stores that include vitellogenin, a behavioral affector protein that also can increase lifespan. Although the seasonal reduction in exposure to nursing tasks predictably results in vitellogenin accumulation, the assumption that long-lived adults thereby develop is confounded by a concomitant decline in foraging effort. Foraging activity reduces lifespan, and is influenced by colony resource consumption, brood pheromones, availability of nectar and pollen, and weather. Here, we perform the first controlled experiment where the nursing environment of pre-foraging sister bees was set to vary, while their foraging environment later was set to be the same. We measure vitellogenin, age at foraging onset and lifespan. We establish that reduced brood-rearing increases vitellogenin levels, and delays foraging onset and death. Longevity is largely explained by the effect of nursing on the onset of foraging behavior, but is also influenced by the level of brood-rearing independent of behavioral change. Our findings are consistent with the roles of vitellogenin in regulation of honey bee behavior and lifespan.

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2007

Cellular Automata

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The life of the bee,

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The Making of a Queen: TOR Pathway Is a Key Player in Diphenic Caste Development

The Making of a Queen: TOR Pathway Is a Key Player in Diphenic Caste Development

The nurse’s load: Early-life exposure to brood-rearing affects behavior and lifespan in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

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