| Title: | "Resisting majesty: Apis cerana, has lower antennal sensitivity and decreased attraction to queen mandibular pheromone than Apis mellifera" |
| Author(s): | Dong S; Wen P; Zhang Q; Li X; Tan K; Nieh J; |
| Address: | "Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China. Eastern Bee Research Institute, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China. Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "In highly social bees, queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) is vital for colony life. Both Apis cerana (Ac) and Apis mellifera (Am) share an evolutionarily conserved set of QMP compounds: (E)-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid (9-ODA), (E)-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid (9-HDA), (E)-10-hydroxy-dec-2-enoic acid (10-HDA), 10-hydroxy-decanoic acid (10-HDAA), and methyl p-hydroxybenzoate (HOB) found at similar levels. However, evidence suggests there may be species-specific sensitivity differences to QMP compounds because Ac workers have higher levels of ovarian activation than Am workers. Using electroantennograms, we found species-specific sensitivity differences for a blend of the major QMP compounds and three individual compounds (9-HDA, 10-HDAA, and 10-HDA). As predicted, Am was more sensitive than Ac in all cases (1.3- to 2.7- fold higher responses). There were also species differences in worker retinue attraction to three compounds (9-HDA, HOB, and 10-HDA). In all significantly different cases, Am workers were 4.5- to 6.2-fold more strongly attracted than Ac workers were. Thus, Ac workers responded less strongly to QMP than Am workers, and 9-HDA and 10-HDA consistently elicited stronger antennal and retinue formation responses [corrected]" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bees/genetics/metabolism/*physiology *Biological Evolution Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated/chemistry/*metabolism Female Mandible/chemistry/metabolism Ovary/physiology Sex Attractants/chemistry/genetics/*physiology Species Specificity;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineDong, Shihao Wen, Ping Zhang, Qi Li, Xinyu Tan, Ken Nieh, James eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2017/03/16 Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 15; 7:44640. doi: 10.1038/srep44640" |
