Epigenetics Mechanisms of Honeybees: Secrets of Royal Jelly

Abstract

Early diets in honeybees have effects on epigenome with consequences on their phenotype. Depending on the early larval diet, either royal jelly (RJ) or royal worker, 2 different female castes are generated from identical genomes, a long-lived queen with fully developed ovaries and a short-lived functionally sterile worker. To generate these prominent physiological and morphological differences between queen and worker, honeybees utilize epigenetic mechanisms which are controlled by nutritional input. These mechanisms include DNA methylation and histone post-translational modifications, mainly histone acetylation. In honeybee larvae, DNA methylation and histone acetylation may be differentially altered by RJ. This diet has biologically active ingredients with inhibitory effects on the de novo methyltransferase DNMT3A or the histone deacetylase 3 HDAC3 to create and maintain the epigenetic state necessary for developing larvae to generate a queen. DNMT and HDAC enzymes work together to induce the formation of a compacted chromatin structure, repressing transcription. Such dialog could be coordinated by their association with other epigenetic factors including the ubiquitin-like containing plant homeodomain (PHD) and really interesting new gene (RING) finger domains 1 (UHRF1). Through its multiple functional domains, UHRF1 acts as an epigenetic reader of both DNA methylation patterns and histone marks. The present review discusses the epigenetic regulation of honeybee’s chromatin and how the early diets in honeybees can affect the DNA/histone modifying types of machinery that are necessary to stimulate the larvae to turn into either queen or worker. The review also looks at future directions in epigenetics mechanisms of honeybees, mainly the potential role of UHRF1 in these mechanisms.

The Effects of Artificial Diets on the Expression of Molecular Marker Genes Related to Honey Bee Health

“…Furthermore, proteins digested from bee bread and subsequently from Diet 2 were found to be more effective than those from Diet 1 and Megabee diets in terms of accumulating in honey bee body proteins (in the head and abdomen). Head proteins play a crucial role in the development of hypopharyngeal glands in nurse honey bees, which secrete royal jelly to feed the queen and larvae [35]. Abdomen proteins without a digestive system represent the fat body protein content.…”

Royal Jelly: Biological Action and Health Benefits

“…The most important bioactive components of RJ and their functional roles are shown in Table 2. proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells (IEC-6), [31] increase in lifespan in invertebrates, [11,26,53] proliferation rat hepatocytes, [26] larvae differentiation into queen via epidermal growth factor signaling, [11,30,43,44,47,48] self-renewal of stem cells, [11,26,30] proliferation of human monocytes and Jurkat lymphoid cell [33,35,44] MRPJ2 and isoform (Alternative name: Apalbumin 2)…”

“…Furthermore, RJ improves the memory and survival of bee workers due to its high concentration of acetylcholine. The permanent expression of the DNA methyltransferases 3 ( DNMT3 ) gene which encodes DNA methyltransferase and has an important role in the formation of long-term memory further contributes to the extraordinary cognitive performances of queen bees [ 46 , 47 ].…”

“…The efficacy of 10-HDA was also reported in transplantable leukemia in AKR mice and various ascitic tumor cell lines in mice. As mentioned in previous sections, 10-HDA acts as a potent HDAC inhibitor and suppresses proliferation by inhibiting PI3K/Akt signaling [ 47 , 88 ]. The lipophilic extract of RJ demonstrated the antiproliferative effects in human neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) and human glioblastoma (U373) [ 237 , 238 ].…”