Unknown,Transcriptomics,Genomics,Proteomics

Dataset Information

Social Regulation of Maternal Traits in Nest-Founding Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) Queens

ABSTRACT: During the nest-founding phase of the bumble bee colony cycle, queens undergo striking changes in maternal care behavior. Early in the founding phase, prior to the emergence of workers in the nest, queens are reproductive and also provision and feed their offspring. However, later in the founding phase, queens cease feeding offspring and become specialized on reproduction. This transition is synchronized with the emergence of workers in the colony, who assume the task of feeding their siblings. Using a social manipulation experiment, we tested the hypothesis that workers socially regulate the transition from feeding brood to specialization on reproduction in nest-founding bumble bee queens. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that early-stage queens with workers prematurely added to their nests reduce their brood-feeding behavior and increase egg-laying, and likewise, late-stage queens increase their brood-feeding behavior and decrease egg-laying when workers are removed from their nests. Further, brood-feeding and egg-laying behavior were negatively correlated in these queens. We used an Agilent brain EST-based microarray to explore a second hypothesis, that workers alter brain gene expression in nest-founding queens. We found evidence that brain gene expression in nest-founding queens is altered by the presence of workers, with the effect much stronger in late-stage founding queens. Additionally, expression levels of some genes were correlated with quantitative differences in brood-feeding and egg-laying behavior. This study provides new insights into how the transition from feeding brood to specialization on reproduction in bumble bee queens is regulated during the nest initiation phase of the colony cycle.

ORGANISM(S): Bombus terrestris

SUBMITTER: Hollis Woodard

PROVIDER: E-MTAB-1855 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress

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Publications

Social regulation of maternal traits in nest-founding bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) queens.

Woodard S Hollis SH Bloch Guy G Band Mark R MR Robinson Gene E GE

The Journal of experimental biology 20130901 Pt 18

During the nest-founding phase of the bumble bee colony cycle, queens undergo striking changes in maternal care behavior. Early in the founding phase, prior to the emergence of workers in the nest, queens are reproductive and also provision and feed their offspring. However, later in the founding phase, queens reduce their feeding of larvae and become specialized on reproduction. This transition is synchronized with the emergence of workers in the colony, who assume the task of feeding their sib ...[more]

PMID: 23966589

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Project description:In many animals living in groups the reproductivestatus of individuals is determined by their social status. In specieswith social hierarchies, the death of dominant individuals typicallyupheaves the social hierarchy and provides an opportunity for subordinateindividuals to improve their social status. Such a phenomenon occursin the monogyne form of the fire ant\emph{, Solenopsis invicta, }wherecolonies typically contain a single wingless reproductive queen, thousandsof workers and hundreds of winged non-reproductive virgin queens.Upon the death of the mother queen, many virgin queens shed theirwings and initiate reproductive development instead of departing ona mating flight. Workers progressively execute almost all of themover the following weeks. The workers base their collective decisionon pheromonal cues associated with the onset of reproductive developmentof the virgin queens which occurs after orphaning. To examine the factors that determine which virgin queens are executed and which survive, we set up artificial competitions between queens from different colonies. Using microarrays, we found that queens from winning colonies showed higher mitochondrial as well as organ development activities 24 hours after orphaning than did queens from colonies that lost the competitions. Furthermore, queens from colonies where queens shed their wings faster after orphaning were more likely to survive competitions. Finally, higher wing shedding speed is linked to higher mitochondrial activity. Eight competitions were initially conducted between queens form pairs of colonies. Six competitions clearly identified one winning colony and one losing colony. We thus have microarray data for six competitions (ie biological replicates), with one winning and one losing colony within each competition. Thus 12 colonies total. For each colony, RNA extracted from five queens was pooled, and hybridized against an unrelated common reference RNA that had been made from a pool of many S. invicta individuals of all castes and developmental stages. Lab work was conducted in blocks (by competition) with randomized order within competition to avoid introducing bias. No technical replication was performed.

Project description:Olfaction and chemical communication are fundamental for coordination in insect societies, especially in species forming large colonies. Reproductive and task partitioning suggest that colony members belonging to different castes or subcastes or performing different tasks during their life (polyethism) may produce different semiochemicals and be differently sensitive to the variety of pheromones and/or environmental odours. The main peripheral olfactory organs are the antennal chemosensilla, where the early olfactory processes take place. At this stage, members of two different families of soluble chemosensory proteins (Odorant Binding Proteins -OBPs-, Chemosensory Proteins -CSPs-) show a remarkable affinity for different odorants and act as carriers while a further family, the Niemann Pick type C2 proteins (NPC2) may have a similar function, although this has not been fully demonstrated. Sensillar lymph also contains Odorant degrading enzymes (ODEs) which are involved in inactivation through degradation of the chemical signals, once the message is conveyed. Despite their importance in chemical communication, poor is known about how proteins involved in peripheral olfaction and, more generally antennal proteins, differ in honeybees of different caste, task and age. Here we investigate for the first time, using a shotgun proteomic approach, the antennal profile of honeybee of different castes (queens and workers) and of workers performing different tasks (nursers, guards and foragers) by controlling for the potential confounding effect of age. Regarding olfactory proteins, major differences were observed between queens and workers, some of which were found to be more abundant in queens (OBP3, OBP18, NPC2-1) and others to be more abundant in workers (OBP15, OBP21, CSP1, CSP3); while between workers performing different tasks, OBP14 was more abundant in nurses with respect to guards and foragers, and two ODEs were more abundant in guards with respect to workers of 2nd week. Apart from proteins involved in olfaction, we have found that the antennal proteomes are mainly characterized by castes and tasks, while age has a limited effect on antennal protein profile.

Dataset Information

Social Regulation of Maternal Traits in Nest-Founding Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) Queens

Publications

Social regulation of maternal traits in nest-founding bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) queens.

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