Honeybee antennae LC-MSMS - The timing and amplitude of reproductive effort are central life history variables for all organisms

ABSTRACT: The timing and amplitude of reproductive effort are central life history variables for all organisms. In social insects, reproductive effort is collectively controlled at the colony level but little is known about the mechanisms that determine how much colonies invest in reproduction. As part of their female reproductive investment, honey bee colonies raise multiple new queens by feeding royal jelly to female larvae. Artificial selection for commercial royal jelly production in China has generated over the past 40 years a stock of royal jelly bees that raises an order of magnitude more queens and provisions each queen with >3x more royal jelly than unselected stock. Here we establish in a reciprocal cross-fostering experiment that this dramatic shift in social phenotype is due to changes in the nurse bees that care for the brood. We demonstrate higher electrophysiological responsiveness to brood pheromones in royal jelly bees than in unselected bees. Comparing the antennal proteome of unselected and royal jelly bees, we identify proteins involved in chemosensation and energy metabolism as candidates for the observed differences. We confirm several candidates, most prominently OBP16 and CSP4, with quantitative differences of corresponding mRNA levels and functional binding assays between the brood pheromones and the chemosensory proteins. Furthermore, we complement analyses of brood volatiles and electrophysiological recordings with behavioral attraction assays to confirm the presumed biological function of one newly discovered and two existing larval pheromones. Together, these findings help our understanding of pheromonal communication in honey bees and explain how sensory changes in nurse honey bees as alloparental caregivers have evolved in response to artificial selection, leading to a profound shift in colony-level resource allocation to sexual reproduction.

INSTRUMENT(S): Q Exactive

ORGANISM(S): Apis Mellifera (honeybee)

TISSUE(S): Tentacle

SUBMITTER: Fan Wu  

LAB HEAD: Jianke Li

PROVIDER: PXD011149 | Pride | 2019-08-01

REPOSITORIES: Pride