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

One of the first tasks of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) during their lifetime is to feed the larval offspring. In brief, young workers (nurse bees) secrete a special food jelly that contains a large amount of unique major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs). The regulation of mrjp gene expression is not well understood, but the large upregulation in well-fed nurse bees suggests a tight repression until, or a massive induction upon, hatching of the adult worker bees. The lipoprotein vitellogenin, the synthesis of which is regulated by the two systemic hormones 20-hydroxyecdysone and juvenile hormone, is thought to be a precursor for the production of MRJPs. Thus, the regulation of mrjp expression by the said systemic hormones is likely. This study focusses on the role of 20-hydroxyecdysone by elucidating its effect on mrjp gene expression dynamics. Specifically, we tested whether 20-hydroxyecdysone displayed differential effects on various mrjps. We found that the expression of the mrjps (mrjp1–3) that were finally secreted in large amounts into the food jelly, in particular, were down regulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone treatment, with mrjp3 showing the highest repression value.

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THE ROLE OF NUTRITION AND TEMPERATURE IN THE OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORKER HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA)

The Canadian Entomologist ◽

10.4039/ent130883-6 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 130 (6) ◽

pp. 883-891 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Huarong Lin ◽

Mark L. Winston

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Nutritive Value ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Ovarian Development ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Brood Chamber ◽

Laying Workers

AbstractQueenless, caged, newly emerged worker bees (Apis mellifera L.) were fed honey, 22 and 40% pollen in honey, and 22 and 40% royal jelly in honey for 14 days. Workers fed royal jelly, pollen, and honey had large, medium, and small ovaries, respectively. Royal jelly had higher nutritive value for workers’ ovarian development than did pollen, possibly because royal jelly is predigested by nurse bees and easily used by adult and larval bees. These results suggest that nurse bees could mediate workers’ ovarian development in colonies via trophallactic exchange of royal jelly. Six levels of royal jelly in honey, 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% (royal jelly without honey), were tested for their effects on workers’ ovarian development and mortality for 10 days. High levels of royal jelly increased ovarian development, but also increased worker mortality. All caged bees treated with 100% royal jelly died within 3 days. When workers were incubated at 20, 27, and 34 °C for 10 days, only bees at 34 °C developed ovaries. These findings suggest that nurse bees functioning as units which digest pollen and produce royal jelly may feed some potentially egg-laying workers in a brood chamber with royal jelly when a queen is lost in a colony. Feeding workers a diet of 50% royal jelly in honey and incubating at 34 °C for 10 days is recommended for tests of ovarian development.

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Effect of Different Substrates on the Acceptance of Grafted Larvae in Commercial Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Queen Rearing

Journal of Apicultural Science ◽

10.1515/jas-2017-0019 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 61 (2) ◽

pp. 245-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Celia A. Contreras-Martinez ◽

Francisca Contreras-Escareño ◽

José O. Macias-Macias ◽

Jose M. Tapia-Gonzalez ◽

Tatiana Petukhova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Sugar Content ◽

Acceptance Rate ◽

Coconut Water ◽

Distilled Water ◽

Queen Rearing ◽

Honey Bee Queens

Abstract The need for the increased production of honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens has led beekeepers to use different substrates in artificial queen cups where larvae destined to become queens are deposited (grafting). However, not enough scientific evidence exists that indicates that this practice is useful and what substance offers the best results. This study was conducted to determine with the Doolittle queen rearing method the acceptance rate of larvae deposited on different substrates during grafting and to determine if the sugar content and pH of the substrates used affect the acceptance of larvae in cell builder colonies. The evaluated substrates were coconut water, apple nectar, royal jelly, cola soda and distilled water, plus control (without substrate). Grafted larvae of the six treatments were introduced into cell builder colonies and their acceptance verified after 72 h. Apple nectar provided the highest rate of larvae acceptance with 81.06%, followed by cola soda with 62.93%, coconut water with 60.90%, royal jelly with 57.82% and distilled water with 58.99%. The larvae acceptance rates of all substrates were significantly higher than the control, which had an acceptance rate of 47.04%. No significant relationship was found between the sugar content of the substrates and larvae acceptance. However, although not significant, a high negative correlation was found between the substrate pH and the number of accepted larvae (Rho = - 0.90, p = 0.07). These results suggest that the use of liquid acidic substrates during larvae grafting, in particular apple nectar, may increase the production of honey bee queens.

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Juvenile hormone induction of ‘queenliness’ on female honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) larvae reared on worker jelly and on stored royal jelly

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B Comparative Biochemistry ◽

10.1016/0305-0491(84)90153-6 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 78 (1) ◽

pp. 109-117 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Moshe Asencot ◽

Yaacov Lensky

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Juvenile Hormone ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Royal Jelly

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INFLUENCE OF AGE AND POPULATION SIZE ON OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT, AND OF TROPHALLAXIS ON OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT AND VITELLOGENIN TITRES OF QUEENLESS WORKER HONEY BEE (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)

The Canadian Entomologist ◽

10.4039/ent131695-5 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 131 (5) ◽

pp. 695-706 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Huarong Lin ◽

Mark L. Winston ◽

Norbert H. Haunerland ◽

Keith N. Slessor

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Ovarian Development ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Direct Access ◽

Ovary Development ◽

Dominance Status ◽

Access To Food

AbstractWe examined the factors that might influence ovary development in worker honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Queenless workers at different ages (≤ 12 h, and 4, 8, and 21 d) were tested in cages for ovarian development. Newly emerged, 4- and 8-d-old, and 21-d-old workers had medium-, large-, and small-sized ovaries, respectively, suggesting that of the worker ages tested only 4- and 8-d-old workers are likely to become egg layers in a queenless colony. Also, we compared ovarian development of newly emerged workers that were caged for 14 d and allowed to consume either pollen or royal jelly to that of another group of workers similarly caged but screened so that they could only obtain food via trophallaxis from young bees. Ovaries of newly emerged workers that received food from young bees were as well developed as those of newly emerged workers allowed to take pollen or royal jelly directly. Screened workers also had lower but still elevated vitellogenin levels compared with bees having direct access to food. These results indicate that nurse-age bees functioning as pollen-digesting units affect the ovarian development of other workers and to a lesser extent vitellogenesis via food exchange. We compared the influence of group sizes of 25, 125, and 600 bees per cage on ovarian development for 14 d. The two groups of 25 and 125 bees had similar mean ovary scores, and higher scores than a group of 600 bees. Our findings suggest that nurse-age bees could play an important role in mediating worker fertility via trophallaxis, possibly by differentiating worker dominance status, and generally only young workers become fertile when a queen is lost in a colony. Vitellogenin is a more sensitive parameter to measure bee fertility, and might be a useful tool to further explore ovary development and egg laying in worker social insects. We recommend measuring haemolymph vitellogenin titres and (or) oocyte length of workers in a group of 25 bees per cage, supplied with 50% royal jelly in honey as a standard method to assess honey bee worker fertility in future experiments.

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Structure of native glycolipoprotein filaments in honeybee royal jelly

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-020-20135-x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Simone Mattei ◽

Arvid Ban ◽

Armin Picenoni ◽

Marc Leibundgut ◽

Rudi Glockshuber ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Apis Mellifera ◽

Larval Development ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Structural Data ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Cryo Electron Microscopy ◽

Ph Dependent ◽

High Concentrations ◽

Royal Jelly Protein

AbstractRoyal jelly (RJ) is produced by honeybees (Apis mellifera) as nutrition during larval development. The high viscosity of RJ originates from high concentrations of long lipoprotein filaments that include the glycosylated major royal jelly protein 1 (MRJP1), the small protein apisimin and insect lipids. Using cryo-electron microscopy we reveal the architecture and the composition of RJ filaments, in which the MRJP1 forms the outer shell of the assembly, surrounding stacked apisimin tetramers harbouring tightly packed lipids in the centre. The structural data rationalize the pH-dependent disassembly of RJ filaments in the gut of the larvae.

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Changes in Alternative Splicing in Apis Mellifera Bees Fed Apis Cerana Royal Jelly

Journal of Apicultural Science ◽

10.2478/jas-2014-0019 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 25-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yuan Yuan Shi ◽

Zachary Y. Huang ◽

Xiao Bo Wu ◽

Zi Long Wang ◽

Wei Yu Yan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alternative Splicing ◽

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Intron Retention ◽

Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle ◽

Apis Cerana ◽

Causative Factor ◽

Caste Differentiation ◽

Splice Sites

Abstract The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a social insect characterized by caste differentiation in which the queen bee and worker bees display marked differences in morphology, behavior, reproduction, and longevity despite their identical genomes. The main causative factor in caste differentiation is the food fed to queen larvae, termed royal jelly (RJ). Alternative splicing (AS) is an important RNA-mediated post-transcriptional process in eukaryotes. Here we report AS changes in A. mellifera after being fed either A. mellifera RJ or A. cerana RJ. The results demonstrated that the RJ type affected 4 types of AS in adult A. mellifera: exon skipping, intron retention, alternative 5’ splice sites, and alternative 3’splice sites. After feeding with A. cerana RJ, AS occurred in many genes in adult A. mellifera that encode proteins involved in development, growth, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and substance metabolism. This study provides the first evidence that heterospecific RJ can influence the AS of many genes related to honey bee development and growth.

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