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236 results for “Honeybees”
Cross-activity of honeybee queen pheromones in bumblebees provides evidence for sensory exploitation
<p>The evolutionary origin of queen pheromones, which regulate reproductive division of labor in insect societies, has been explained by two evolutionary scenarios: the <i>sender-precursor hypothesis</i> and the <i>sensory exploitation hypothesis</i>. These scenarios differ in terms of whether the signaling system was built on preadaptations on the part of either the sender queens or the receiver workers. While some social insect queen pheromones – such as cuticular hydrocarbons – were likely derived from ancestral fertility cues and evolved according to the former theory, the honeybee's queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) has been suggested to act directly on pre-existing gene-regulatory networks linked with reproduction. This is evidenced by the fact that QMP has been shown to also inhibit ovary activation in fruit flies, thereby implying exploitation of conserved physiological pathways. To verify whether QMP has similar effects on more closely related eusocial species, we here tested for QMP cross-activity in the bumblebee <i>Bombus terrestris</i>. Interestingly, we found that the non-native QMP blend significantly inhibited egg-laying in both worker and queen bumblebees and caused accompanying shifts in ovary activation. The native bumblebee queen pheromone pentacosane, by contrast, only inhibited the reproduction of the workers. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that honeybee QMP likely evolved via a route of sensory exploitation. We argue that such exploitation could allow social insect queens to produce compounds that manipulate the workers to remain sterile, but that a major hurdle would be that the queens themselves would have to be immune to such compounds.</p>
Data from: Genome-wide association study of a Varroa-specific defense behavior in honeybees (Apis mellifera)
Honey bees are exposed to many damaging pathogens and parasites. The most devastating is Varroa destructor, which mainly affects the brood. A promising approach for preventing its spread is to breed Varroa-resistant honey bees. One trait that has been shown to provide significant resistance against the Varroa mite is hygienic behavior, which is a behavioral response of honeybee workers to brood diseases in general. Here we report the use of an Affymetrix 44K SNP array to analyze SNPs associated with detection and uncapping of Varroa-parasitized brood by individual worker bees (Apis mellifera). For this study, 22,000 individually labeled bees were video-monitored and a sample of 122 cases and 122 controls was collected and analyzed to determine the dependence / independence of SNP genotypes from hygienic and non-hygienic behavior on a genome-wide scale. After false-discovery rate correction of the p-values, six SNP markers had highly significant associations with the trait investigated (alpha < 0.01). Inspection of the genomic regions around these SNPs led to the discovery of putative candidate genes.
Data from: The carry-over effects of pollen shortage decrease the survival of honeybee colonies in farmlands
Many studies have reported honeybee colony losses in human-dominated landscapes. While bee floral food resources have been drastically reduced over past decades in human-dominated landscapes, no field study has yet been undertaken to determine whether there is a carry-over effect between seasonal disruption in floral resource availability and high colony losses. We investigated if a decline in the harvest of pollen by honeybees in spring affected managed honeybee colony dynamics (brood size, adult population and honey reserves) and health (Varroa mite loads and colony survival) throughout the beekeeping season. A decline in pollen harvest was associated with a direct reduction in brood production, leading to a negative effect on the adult population size later in the season, and lower honey reserves before the onset of winter. Furthermore, the decline in pollen harvest negatively impacted the health of the colony, resulting in higher Varroa mite loads and higher seasonal and winter colony losses. Early-warning signs of these carry-over effects were identified, showing that preferential investment in honey reserves instead of brood production early in the season increased the decline in pollen harvest and its associated carry-over effects. Synthesis and applications. The results suggest that the decline in pollen harvest may have been overlooked as a cause of pollen shortage and associated bee colony losses. Strategies to avoid such losses in intensive farmland systems include (i) limiting or avoiding honey harvests in spring, (ii) monitoring colonies for early-warning signals of colony failure and (iii) increasing the amount of floral resources available through wise land-use management.
Data from: Domesticated honeybees facilitate interspecific hybridization between two Taraxacum congeners
1. Interspecific hybridization is common in plants under natural conditions, but the ecological mechanisms underlying when and how it happens have not fully been understood. 2. Taraxacum calanthodium and T. lugubre are two herbaceous annals co-occurring in alpine meadows of the eastern Tibetan Plateau that share the same pollinators including domestic honeybees during their overlapping flowering times. Because honeybees tend to visit flowers less discriminatively when bee densities are high, we hypothesized that intense apiculture would facilitate hybridization between these two congeneric species. 3. We tested this hypothesis by examining the frequencies of the two parent species occurrence and the hybrid (based on morphological and genetic differences) along three transects radiating from well-established apiaries. 4. Experiments show that both Taraxacum calanthodium and T. lugubre produce seeds sexually and asexually, and that they can hybridize via pollen transfer. Bee visitation rates and the frequency of the hybrid were significantly higher in the sites nearest to apiaries compared to distant site along each of the three transects. The hybrids were consistently genetically intermediate between the two species, as indicated by Simple Sequence Repeat- based analyses. 5. Synthesis. These data indicate that domestic honeybees foster interspecific hybridization between the two Taraxacum species and that anthropogenic effects on pollen vectors can significantly influence species hybridization in nature. We suggest that more effort should be made to quantify the effects of environmental change on pollinators and their effects on species evolution.
Data from: In-situ recording of ionic currents in projection neurons and Kenyon cells in the olfactory pathway of the honeybee
The honeybee olfactory pathway comprises an intriguing pattern of convergence and divergence: ~60.000 olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) convey olfactory information on ~900 projection neurons (PN) in the antennal lobe (AL). To transmit this information reliably, PNs employ relatively high spiking frequencies with complex patterns. PNs project via a dual olfactory pathway to the mushroom bodies (MB). This pathway comprises the medial (m-ALT) and the lateral antennal lobe tract (l-ALT). PNs from both tracts transmit information from a wide range of similar odors, but with distinct differences in coding properties. In the MBs, PNs form synapses with many Kenyon cells (KC) that encode odors in a spatially and temporally sparse way. The transformation from complex information coding to sparse coding is a well-known phenomenon in insect olfactory coding. Intrinsic neuronal properties as well as GABAergic inhibition are thought to contribute to this change in odor representation. In the present study, we identified intrinsic neuronal properties promoting coding differences between PNs and KCs using in-situ patch-clamp recordings in the intact brain. We found very prominent K+ currents in KCs clearly differing from the PN currents. This suggests that odor coding differences between PNs and KCs may be caused by differences in their specific ion channel properties. Comparison of ionic currents of m- and l-ALT PNs did not reveal any differences at a qualitative level.
Data from: Numerical cognition in honeybees enables addition and subtraction
Many animals understand numbers at a basic level for use in essential tasks such as foraging, shoaling, and resource management. However, complex arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, using symbols and/or labeling have only been demonstrated in a limited number of nonhuman vertebrates. We show that honeybees, with a miniature brain, can learn to use blue and yellow as symbolic representations for addition or subtraction. In a free-flying environment, individual bees used this information to solve unfamiliar problems involving adding or subtracting one element from a group of elements. This display of numerosity requires bees to acquire long-term rules and use short-term working memory. Given that honeybees and humans are separated by over 400 million years of evolution, our findings suggest that advanced numerical cognition may be more accessible to nonhuman animals than previously suspected.
Negative effects of neonicotinoids on male honeybee survival, behaviour and physiology in the field
<p>1. Agricultural chemicals such as neonicotinoid insecticides are believed to be one important factor responsible for the recent reduction in health of pollinating insects like the western honeybee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>). However, effects of neonicotinoids on male (drone) honeybee health remain severely understudied.</p> <p>2. We examined for the first time the multi-dimensional effects of field-realistic concentrations of two common neonicotinoid insecticides (thiamethoxam and clothianidin) on drone honeybee survival, behaviour, and physiology using individuals reared and maintained as adults in the field.</p> <p>3. Our data showed that neonicotinoids reduced honeybee drone survival by 51%, increased drifting behaviour to non-maternal colonies by 100%, delayed flight activities by three days, and reduced number of living sperm by 28%. However, they did not influence the sperm concentration produced by the drones, the strength of the drone's maternal colonies, or the total number of drones produced by those colonies.</p> <p>4. '<i>Policy implications'</i>: Our study demonstrated that neonicotinoids can elicit a diverse array of lethal (survival) and sub-lethal (behaviour, reproductive physiology) effects on male honeybees (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) in the field. These findings should be considered by policy makers looking to adopt and implement science-based, holistic risk assessments to more comprehensively assess effects of chemicals on important ecosystem service providing insects like the honeybee. To date, risk assessment schemes do not specifically address potential effects on male bees.</p>
Data from: Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Slow-fast differences in cognition among individuals have been proposed to be an outcome of the speed-accuracy trade-off in decision-making. Based on the different costs associated with acquiring information via individual and social learning, we hypothesized that slow-fast cognitive differences would also be tied to the adoption of these different learning modes. Since foragers in honeybee colonies likely have both these information acquisition modes available to them, we chose to test them for inter-individual differences in individual and social learning.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Individual honeybees foragers were presented with a learning task: making a choice between two types of flowers one rewarding (offering sucrose) and one unrewarding (offering water). This task was presented twice: 1) the bee was alone (individual learning) and 2) there was a social cue (model bee) on the correct color. For every individual, the raw data consisted of 20 successive choices between rewarding and unrewarding flowers in each of the two learning tasks. From these data, learning curves were constructed by calculating an accuracy index as the proportion of correct choices for rewarding in the 4 visits up to and including that visit, and a logisitc function was fit to the accuracy index. From this logistic function we calculated individual learning parameters: maximum individual learning score, individual learning rate, maximum social learning score, social learning rate. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Our results support the existence of a speed-accuracy trade-off in both the individual and the social learning contexts. However, the trade-off is steeper during individual learning, which was slower than social learning but led to higher accuracy. Most importantly, our results also show that bees which attained high accuracy on the individual learning task had low accuracy on the social learning task and vice versa.</p>
Experimental cross species transmission of a major viral pathogen in bees is predominantly from honeybees to bumblebees
<p>Cross-species transmission of a pathogen from a reservoir to a recipient host species, spillover, can have major impacts on biodiversity, domestic species and human health. <i>Deformed wing virus</i> (DWV) is a panzootic RNA virus in honeybees that is causal in their elevated colony losses, and several correlative field studies have suggested spillover of DWV from managed honeybees to wild bee species such as bumblebees. Yet unequivocal demonstration of DWV spillover is lacking whilst spillback, the transmission of DWV from a recipient back to the reservoir host, is rarely considered. Here we show in fully crossed laboratory experiments that transmission of DWV (genotype A) from honeybees to bumblebees occurs readily, yet we neither detected viral transmission from bumblebees to honeybees nor onward transmission from experimentally infected to uninoculated bumblebees. Our results support the potential for viral spillover from honeybees to other bee species in the field when robbing resources from heterospecific nests or when visiting the same flowers. They also underscore the importance of studies on the virulence of DWV in wild bee species so as to evaluate viral impact on individual and population fitness as well as viral adaption to new host species.</p>
Data from: Comparison of infinitesimal and finite locus models for long-term breeding simulations with direct and maternal effects at the example of honeybees
Stochastic simulation studies of animal breeding have mostly relied on either the infinitesimal genetic model or finite polygenic models. In this study, we investigated the long-term effects of the chosen model on honeybee breeding schemes. We implemented the infinitesimal model, as well as finite locus models, with 200 and 400 gene loci and simulated populations of 300 and 1000 colonies per year over the course of 100 years. The selection was of a directly and maternally influenced trait with maternal heritability of h²_m = 0.42, direct heritability of h² d = 0.27, and a negative correlation between the effects of r_md = −0.18. Another set of simulations was run with parameters h²_m = 0.53, h²_d = 0.34, and r_md = −0.53. All models showed similar behavior for the first 20 years. Throughout the study, we observed a higher genetic gain in the direct than in the maternal effects and a smaller gain with a stronger negative covariance. In thelong-term, however, only the infinitesimal model predicted sustainable linear genetic progress, while the finite locus models showed sublinear behavior and, after 100 years, only reached between 58% and 62% of the mean breeding values in the infinitesimal model. While the infinitesimal model suggested a reduction of genetic variance by 33% to 49% after 100 years, the finite locus models saw a more drastic loss of 76% to 92%. When designing sustainable breeding strategies, one should, therefore, not blindly trust the infinitesimal model as the predictions may be overly optimistic. Instead, the more conservative choice of the finite locus model should be favored.
Comparing the appetitive learning performance of six European honeybee subspecies in a common apiary
<p>Raw data on gustatory response scores and learning performance of individual worker bees belonging to one of six subspecies of the Western honeybee (<em>A. mellifera</em>). All study colonies were kept together in a common apiary to ensure a uniform environment. Individual bees were tested in standardized protocols for classical olfactory learning and gustatory responsiveness.</p>
Figure 4 from: Barour C, Baylac M (2016) Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three African honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera intermissa, A. m. sahariensis and A. m. capensis (Hymenoptera, Apidae): Fore wing and hind wing landmark configurations. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 52: 61-70. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.52.8787
Figure 4 - Extreme shape differences between Apis mellifera intermissa, Apis mellifera sahariensis and Apis mellifera capensis along the first two canonical variates (Fig. 3A, B). A and B fore wing shape differences along the first and second canonical variate, respectively. C and D hind wing shape differences along the first and second canonical variate, respectively (scale factor ×3 and ×2 respectively). Grey lines depict the shape associated with the negative values and black lines the shape associated with the positive values of the respective canonical variate.
Figure 1 from: Barour C, Baylac M (2016) Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three African honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera intermissa, A. m. sahariensis and A. m. capensis (Hymenoptera, Apidae): Fore wing and hind wing landmark configurations. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 52: 61-70. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.52.8787
Figure 1 - Location of the landmarks digitized on a right fore and hind wing of Apis mellifera workers (drawn to the same scale). MR: marginal cell, CC: cubital cell, MC: median cell, SMC: sub-median cell, and RC: radial cell.
Figure 3 from: Barour C, Baylac M (2016) Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three African honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera intermissa, A. m. sahariensis and A. m. capensis (Hymenoptera, Apidae): Fore wing and hind wing landmark configurations. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 52: 61-70. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.52.8787
Figure 3 - Shape variability among Apis mellifera intermissa, Apis mellifera sahariensis and Apis mellifera capensis: first two canonical variates. A fore wing shape B hind wing shape.
Honeybee Cheese Burger
Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Data from: Chronic neonicotinoid pesticide exposure and parasite stress differentially affects learning in honeybees and bumblebees
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Data from: Comparison of infinitesimal and finite locus models for long-term breeding simulations with direct and maternal effects at the example of honeybees
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Data from: Interaction between Varroa destructor and imidacloprid reduces flight capacity of honeybees
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Data from: Numerical cognition in honeybees enables addition and subtraction
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Data from: The carry-over effects of pollen shortage decrease the survival of honeybee colonies in farmlands
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