Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

25 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Nest wax triggers worker reproduction in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris.

ABSTRACT: Social insects are well known for their high level of cooperation. Workers of the primitively eusocial bumblebee Bombus terrestris are able to produce male offspring in the presence of a queen. Nonetheless, they only compete for reproduction, in the so-called competition phase, when the workforce is large enough to support the rearing of reproductives. So far, little is known about the proximate mechanisms underlying the shift between altruism and selfish behaviour in bumblebee workers. In this study, we have examined the influence of chemical cues from the nest wax on the onset of worker reproduction. Chemical analyses of wax extracts have revealed that the patterns and amounts of cuticular lipids change considerably during colony development. These changes in wax scent mirror worker abundance and the presence of fertile workers. In bioassays with queen-right worker groups, wax affects the dominance behaviour and ovarian development of workers. When exposed to wax from a colony in competition phase, workers start to compete for reproduction. We suggest that wax scent enables workers to time their reproduction by providing essential information concerning the social condition of the colony.

SUBMITTER: Rottler-Hoermann AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4736944 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Allele specific expression in worker reproduction genes in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris.

Project description:Methylation has previously been associated with allele specific expression in ants. Recently, we found methylation is important in worker reproduction in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Here we searched for allele specific expression in twelve genes associated with worker reproduction in bees. We found allele specific expression in Ecdysone 20 monooxygenase and IMP-L2-like. Although we were unable to confirm a genetic or epigenetic cause for this allele specific expression, the expression patterns of the two genes match those predicted for imprinted genes.

| S-EPMC4512776 | biostudies-literature

The genetic basis of worker reproduction in Bombus terrestris

Project description:We examined the transcriptomic changes associated with worker reproduction in the brain, fat body, ovary and eggs of B. terrestris.

2024-12-12 | GSE93274 | GEO

Methylation and worker reproduction in the bumble-bee (Bombus terrestris).

Project description:Insects are at the dawn of an epigenetics era. Numerous social insect species have been found to possess a functioning methylation system, previously not thought to exist in insects. Methylation, an epigenetic tag, may be vital for the sociality and division of labour for which social insects are renowned. In the bumble-bee Bombus terrestris, we found methylation differences between the genomes of queenless reproductive workers and queenless non-reproductive workers. In a follow up experiment, queenless workers whose genomes had experimentally altered methylation were more aggressive and more likely to develop ovaries compared with control queenless workers. This shows methylation is important in this highly plastic reproductive division of labour. Methylation is an epigenetic tag for genomic imprinting (GI). It is intriguing that the main theory to explain the evolution of GI predicts that GI should be important in this worker reproduction behaviour.

| S-EPMC4027386 | biostudies-literature

Structural Analysis of Hand Drawn Bumblebee Bombus terrestris Silk.

Project description:Bombus terrestris, commonly known as the buff-tailed bumblebee, is native to Europe, parts of Africa and Asia. It is commercially bred for use as a pollinator of greenhouse crops. Larvae pupate within a silken cocoon that they construct from proteins produced in modified salivary glands. The amino acid composition and protein structure of hand drawn B. terrestris, silk fibres was investigated through the use of micro-Raman spectroscopy. Spectra were obtained from single fibres drawn from the larvae salivary gland at a rate of 0.14 cm/s. Raman spectroscopy enabled the identification of poly(alanine), poly(alanine-glycine), phenylalanine, tryptophan, and methionine, which is consistent with the results of amino acid analysis. The dominant protein conformation was found to be coiled coil (73%) while the ?-sheet content of 10% is, as expected, lower than those reported for hornets and ants. Polarized Raman spectra revealed that the coiled coils were highly aligned along the fibre axis while the ?-sheet and random coil components had their peptide carbonyl groups roughly perpendicular to the fibre axis. The protein orientation distribution is compared to those of other natural and recombinant silks. A structural model for the B. terrestris silk fibre is proposed based on these results.

| S-EPMC4964541 | biostudies-literature

Nutrient balancing of the adult worker bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) depends on the dietary source of essential amino acids.

Project description:Animals carefully regulate the amount of protein that they consume. The quantity of individual essential amino acids (EAAs) obtained from dietary protein depends on the protein source, but how the proportion of EAAs in the diet affects nutrient balancing has rarely been studied. Recent research using the Geometric Framework for Nutrition has revealed that forager honeybees who receive much of their dietary EAAs from floral nectar and not from solid protein have relatively low requirements for dietary EAAs. Here, we examined the nutritional requirements for protein and carbohydrates of foragers of the buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris. By using protein (sodium caseinate) or an equimolar mixture of the 10 EAAs, we found that the intake target (nutritional optimum) of adult workers depended on the source and proportion of dietary EAAs. When bees consumed caseinate-containing diets in a range of ratios between 1:250 and 1:25 (protein to carbohydrate), they achieved an intake target (IT) of 1:149 (w/w). In contrast to those fed protein, bees fed the EAA diets had an IT more biased towards carbohydrates (1:560 w/w) but also had a greater risk of death than those fed caseinate. We also tested how the dietary source of EAAs affected free AAs in bee haemolymph. Bees fed diets near their IT had similar haemolymph AA profiles, whereas bees fed diets high in caseinate had elevated levels of leucine, threonine, valine and alanine in the haemolymph. We found that like honeybees, bumblebee workers prioritize carbohydrate intake and have a relatively low requirement for protein. The dietary source of EAAs influenced both the ratio of protein/EAA to carbohydrate and the overall amount of carbohydrate eaten. Our data support the idea that EAAs and carbohydrates in haemolymph are important determinants of nutritional state in insects.

| S-EPMC4376193 | biostudies-literature

Hibernation Leads to Altered Gut Communities in Bumblebee Queens (Bombus terrestris).

Project description:Many reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and insects practice some form of hibernation during which their metabolic rate is drastically reduced. This allows them to conserve energy and survive the harsh winter conditions with little or no food. While it can be expected that a reduction in host metabolism has a substantial influence on the gut microbial community, little is known about the effects of hibernation on the composition of the microbial gut community, especially for insects. In this study, we assessed and compared the bacterial gut community composition within the midgut and ileum of indoor-reared queens of Bombus terrestris before and after an artificial hibernation period of 16 weeks. Deep sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons and clustering of sequence reads into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a similarity threshold of 97% revealed several bacterial taxa that are known to be strongly associated with corbiculate bees. Bacterial community composition after hibernation compared to before hibernation was characterized by higher OTU richness and evenness, with decreased levels of the core bacteria Gilliamella (Proteobacteria, Orbaceae) and Snodgrassella (Proteobacteria, Neisseriaceae), and increased relative abundance of non-core bacteria, including several psychrophilic and psychrotrophic taxa.

| S-EPMC6316087 | biostudies-literature

Gonadotropic and physiological functions of juvenile hormone in Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) workers.

Project description:The evolution of advanced sociality in bees is associated with apparent modifications in juvenile hormone (JH) signaling. By contrast to most insects in which JH is a gonadotropin regulating female fertility, in the highly eusocial honey bee (Apis mellifera) JH has lost its gonadotrophic function in adult females, and instead regulates age-related division of labor among worker bees. In order to shed light on the evolution of JH signaling in bees we performed allatectomy and replacement therapies to manipulate JH levels in workers of the "primitively eusocial" bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Allatectomized worker bees showed remarkable reduction in ovarian development, egg laying, Vitellogenin and Krüppel homolog 1 fat body transcript levels, hemolymph Vitellogenin protein abundance, wax secretion, and egg-cell construction. These effects were reverted, at least partially, by treating allatectomized bees with JH-III, the natural JH of bees. Allatectomy also affected the amount of ester component in Dufour's gland secretion, which is thought to convey a social signal relating to worker fertility. These findings provide a strong support for the hypothesis that in contrast to honey bees, JH is a gonadotropin in bumblebees and lend credence to the hypothesis that the evolution of advanced eusociality in honey bees was associated with major modifications in JH signaling.

| S-EPMC4069101 | biostudies-literature

Allele specific expression and methylation in the bumblebee, <i>Bombus terrestris</i>.

Project description:The social hymenoptera are emerging as models for epigenetics. DNA methylation, the addition of a methyl group, is a common epigenetic marker. In mammals and flowering plants methylation affects allele specific expression. There is contradictory evidence for the role of methylation on allele specific expression in social insects. The aim of this paper is to investigate allele specific expression and monoallelic methylation in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris. We found nineteen genes that were both monoallelically methylated and monoallelically expressed in a single bee. Fourteen of these genes express the hypermethylated allele, while the other five express the hypomethylated allele. We also searched for allele specific expression in twenty-nine published RNA-seq libraries. We found 555 loci with allele-specific expression. We discuss our results with reference to the functional role of methylation in gene expression in insects and in the as yet unquantified role of genetic cis effects in insect allele specific methylation and expression.

| S-EPMC5600721 | biostudies-literature

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

Project description: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.

2014-06-21 | E-MTAB-1855 | biostudies-arrayexpress

Parasite and Pesticide Impacts on the Bumblebee (<i>Bombus terrestris</i>) Haemolymph Proteome.

Project description:Pesticides pose a potential threat to bee health, especially in combination with other stressors, such as parasites. However, pesticide risk assessment tests pesticides in isolation from other stresses, i.e., on otherwise healthy bees. Through molecular analysis, the specific impacts of a pesticide or its interaction with another stressor can be elucidated. Molecular mass profiling by MALDI BeeTyping® was used on bee haemolymph to explore the signature of pesticidal and parasitic stressor impacts. This approach was complemented by bottom-up proteomics to investigate the modulation of the haemoproteome. We tested acute oral doses of three pesticides-glyphosate, Amistar and sulfoxaflor-on the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, alongside the gut parasite Crithidia bombi. We found no impact of any pesticide on parasite intensity and no impact of sulfoxaflor or glyphosate on survival or weight change. Amistar caused weight loss and 19-41% mortality. Haemoproteome analysis showed various protein dysregulations. The major pathways dysregulated were those involved in insect defences and immune responses, with Amistar having the strongest impact on these dysregulated pathways. Our results show that even when no response can be seen at a whole organism level, MALDI BeeTyping® can detect effects. Mass spectrometry analysis of bee haemolymph provides a pertinent tool to evaluate stressor impacts on bee health, even at the level of individuals.

| S-EPMC10049270 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data