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Longevity extension of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) by royal jelly: optimal dose and active ingredient.

ABSTRACT: In the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, queens and workers have different longevity although they share the same genome. Queens consume royal jelly (RJ) as the main food throughout their life, including as adults, but workers only eat worker jelly when they are larvae less than 3 days old. In order to explore the effect of RJ and the components affecting longevity of worker honey bees, we first determined the optimal dose for prolonging longevity of workers as 4% RJ in 50% sucrose solution, and developed a method of obtaining long lived workers. We then compared the effects of longevity extension by RJ 4% with bee-collected pollen from rapeseed (Brassica napus). Lastly, we determined that a water soluble RJ protein obtained by precipitation with 60% ammonium sulfate (RJP₆₀) contained the main component for longevity extension after comparing the effects of RJ crude protein extract (RJCP), RJP₃₀ (obtained by precipitation with 30% ammonium sulfate), and RJ ethanol extract (RJEE). Understanding what regulates worker longevity has potential to help increase colony productivity and improve crop pollination efficiency.

SUBMITTER: Yang W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5372980 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Queen cells acceptance rate and royal jelly production in worker honey bees of two Apis mellifera races.

Project description:Royal jelly (RJ) is an acidic yellowish-white secretion of worker honey bee glands, used as food material of worker bee larvae for the first three days and queen bee larvae for the entire life. It is commercially used in cosmetics and medicinal industry in various parts of the world. This study determined the queen cell acceptance rate and RJ production difference among Italian and Carniolan bee races. Furthermore, the effect of plastic cup cell priming media, diets and seasons were tested on the larval cell acceptance rate and RJ yield of both races. The results indicated that average queen cell acceptance rate was significantly (p<0.001) higher in Italian race (75.53 ± 1.41%) than Carniolan race (58.20 ± 1.30%). Similarly, mean RJ yield per colony significantly (p<0.001) differed between both bee races, which were 13.10 ± 0.42 g and 9.66 ± 0.43 g, in Italian and Carniolan races, respectively. Moreover, priming media, diets and seasons significantly (p<0.001) affected queen cell acceptance rate and RJ production of both bee races. This study would help breeders to select the bees with higher-level of queen cell acceptance rate and RJ production in the future.

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RNA-Seq of full-length RNA from worker and royal jelly of honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Project description:Characterization of naturally-occurring RNAs (up to 200nt) in the honey bee worker and royal jelly

2018-11-29 | E-MTAB-6557 | biostudies-arrayexpress

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

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Hemolymph proteome changes during worker brood development match the biological divergences between western honey bees (Apis mellifera) and eastern honey bees (Apis cerana).

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Cryptic "royal" subfamilies in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies.

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Transcriptional Control of Honey Bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) <i>Major Royal Jelly Proteins</i> by 20-Hydroxyecdysone.

Project description: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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Identification of genes related to high royal jelly production in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) using microarray analysis.

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