Dataset Information

Barbs facilitate the helical penetration of honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) stingers.

ABSTRACT: The stinger is a very small and efficient device that allows honeybees to perform two main physiological activities: repelling enemies and laying eggs for reproduction. In this study, we explored the specific characteristics of stinger penetration, where we focused on its movements and the effects of it microstructure. The stingers of Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were grouped and fixed onto four types of cubic substrates, before pressing into different substrates. The morphological characteristics of the stinger cross-sections were analyzed before and after penetration by microscopy. Our findings suggest that the honeybee stinger undergoes helical and clockwise rotation during penetration. We also found that the helical penetration of the stinger is associated directly with the spiral distribution of the barbs, thereby confirming that stinger penetration involves an advanced microstructure rather than a simple needle-like apparatus. These results provide new insights into the mechanism of honeybee stinger penetration.

SUBMITTER: Wu J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4121201 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Barbs facilitate the helical penetration of honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) stingers.

Wu Jianing J Yan Shaoze S Zhao Jieliang J Ye Yuying Y

PloS one 20140804 8

The stinger is a very small and efficient device that allows honeybees to perform two main physiological activities: repelling enemies and laying eggs for reproduction. In this study, we explored the specific characteristics of stinger penetration, where we focused on its movements and the effects of it microstructure. The stingers of Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were grouped and fixed onto four types of cubic substrates, before pressing into different substrates. The morphologic ...[more]

PMID: 25089826

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Project description:The honeybee brain is comprised of a nervous system that sufficiently regulates this life transition. Knowledge about how protein phosphorylation functions in regards to the neurobiological activities in the honeybee brain to drive the age-specific labor division is still lacking. Protein phosphorylation, the most common post-translational modification (PTM), is a key switch for rapid on-off control of signaling cascades that regulate cell differentiation and development, enzyme activity and metabolic maintenance in living cells. A fundamental mechanism for regulating signaling network and protein activity is the covalent PTM of serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), and tyrosine (Tyr) residues with phosphate. Fortunately, because of advances in phosphopeptide enrichment and improvements in mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation and methods, phosphoproteomics has enabled large-scale identification of protein phosphorylation sites and phosphorylation networks in biological samples. Although the proteome has been mapped in the brain of nurse and forager bees, knowledge about age-specific effects of phosphorylation regulation on proteins in the honeybee brain is still lacking. Moreover, information in regards to the honeybee phosphoproteome is also very limited. Only very recently, in-depth phosphoproteomics analyses of protein phosphorylation networks in the hypopharyngealgland of the honeybee have been reported. Although the phosphoproteome analyses during the development of brood and salivary glands has been reported, only very limited proteins were phosphorylated and phosphorylation sites of those phosphoproteins were not assigned. Therefore, a comprehensive characterization of phosphoproteomics and changes in the brains of nurse and forager bees is key to understand the phosphorylation events underlying age-specific physiology to achieve the completion of biological missions in this well-organized social community of the honeybee. Honeybee (A. m. ligustica) colonies used for sampling were raised at the apiary of the Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing. Newly emerged (<12 h after emergence) worker bees were marked on their thoraxes and placed back into the colonies to develop and then the marked nurse and forager bees were collected on days 10 and 20, respectively. There were 150 bees sampled from each of the five colonies which have queens at the same age. In brief, for each time point, worker bees were sampled from five colonies, and pooled all samples for further analysis. This procedure was repeated three times, so that we finally ended up with three independent biological replicates per time point, each consisting of 150 honeybees. Then their brains were dissected, and the brain samples were pooled and stored at −80 °C for further analysis. All the colonies were managed with almost identical population, food, and brood during the nectar flow of chaste berry (Vitexnegundo L.) in June.

Dataset Information

Barbs facilitate the helical penetration of honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) stingers.

Publications

Barbs facilitate the helical penetration of honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) stingers.

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