As the main agricultural insect pollinator, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is exposed to a number of agrochemicals, including glyphosate (GLY), the most widely used herbicide. Actually, GLY has been detected in honey and bee pollen baskets. However, its impact on the honey bee brood is poorly explored. Therefore, we assessed the effects of GLY on larval development under chronic exposure during in vitro rearing. Even though this procedure does not account for social compensatory mechanisms such as brood care by adult workers, it allows us to control the herbicide dose, homogenize nutrition and minimize environmental stress. Our results show that brood fed with food containing GLY traces (1.25–5.0 mg per litre of food) had a higher proportion of larvae with delayed moulting and reduced weight. Our assessment also indicates a non-monotonic dose-response and variability in the effects among colonies. Differences in genetic diversity could explain the variation in susceptibility to GLY. Accordingly, the transcription of immune/detoxifying genes in the guts of larvae exposed to GLY was variably regulated among the colonies studied. Consequently, under laboratory conditions, the response of honey bees to GLY indicates that it is a stressor that affects larval development depending on individual and colony susceptibility.

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2‐Cys peroxiredoxins are peroxidases devoid of prosthetic groups that mediate in the defence against oxidative stress and the peroxide activation of signaling pathways. This dual capacity relies on the high reactivity of the conserved peroxidatic and resolving cysteines, whose modification embraces not only the usual thiol–disulfide exchange but also higher oxidation states of the sulfur atom. These changes are part of a complex system wherein the cooperation with other post‐translational modifications – phosphorylation, acetylation – may function as major regulatory mechanisms of the quaternary structure. More importantly, modern proteomic approaches have identified the oxyacids at cysteine residues as novel protein targets for unsuspected post‐translational modifications, such as phosphorylation that yields the unusual sulfi(o)nic–phosphoryl anhydride. In this article, we review the biochemical attributes of 2‐Cys peroxiredoxins that, in combination with complementary studies of forward and reverse genetics, have generated stimulating molecular models to explain how this enzyme integrates into cell signaling in vivo.

This study shows that stink bug damage induces seed defences, which is perceived early by MPKs that may activate defence metabolic pathways in developing seeds of field-grown soybean. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.