Expression of acetylcholinesterase 1 is associated with brood rearing status in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

Abstract

Acetylcholinesterase 1 (AmAChE1) of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, has been suggested to have non-neuronal functions. A systematic expression profiling of AmAChE1 over a year-long cycle on a monthly basis revealed that AmAChE1 was predominantly expressed in both head and abdomen during the winter months and was moderately expressed during the rainy summer months. Interestingly, AmAChE1 expression was inhibited when bees were stimulated for brood rearing by placing overwintering beehives in strawberry greenhouses with a pollen diet, whereas it resumed when the beehives were moved back to the cold field, thereby suppressing brood rearing. In early spring, pollen diet supplementation accelerated the induction of brood-rearing activity and the inhibition of AmAChE1 expression. When active beehives were placed in a screen tent in late spring, thereby artificially suppressing brood-rearing activity, AmAChE1 was highly expressed. In contrast, AmAChE1 expression was inhibited when beehives were allowed to restore brood rearing by removing the screen, supporting the hypothesis that brood rearing status is a main factor in the regulation of AmAChE1 expression. Since brood rearing status is influenced by various stress factors, including temperature and diet shortage, our finding discreetly suggests that AmAChE1 is likely involved in the stress response or stress management.

Toxicity of Anethole and the Essential Oils of Lemongrass and Sweet Marigold to the Parasitic Mite Varroa destructor and Their Selectivity for Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Workers and Larvae

“…Our results for tau-fluvalinate exposure agree with the notion that AChE is likely associated with stress responses. AChE increases when worker bees are stressed, for example, under conditions of poor pollen availability, and is inhibited when pollen is available and brood rearing is induced [43]. Therefore, it is possible that only tau-fluvalinate had caused stress on the bees.…”

Identification of the neurotransmitter profile of AmFoxP expressing neurons in the honeybee brain using double-label in situ hybridization

“…In vertebrate neuromuscular junctions it can be released pre- and post-synaptically [ 129 ] which makes it a marker for cholinergic as well as cholireceptive neurons [ 130 ]. Also, it is implicated in other metabolic pathways [ 131 , 132 ]. Thus AchE produced by the KC might be predominantly transported to the microglomeruli in the calyx neuropil to hydrolyze Ach transmitted by projection neurons.…”

Validation of quantitative real-time PCR reference genes for the determination of seasonal and labor-specific gene expression profiles in the head of Western honey bee, Apis mellifera

“…The colony population is composed of several thousand bees in the winter, but it increases up to tens of thousands of adult bees in the summer [ 8 ]. According to a recent study [ 9 ], in early spring, when the natural brood-rearing activity was not initiated, an artificial supplementation of pollen diet accelerated the induction of brood-rearing activity. Overwintering beehives exhibiting complete cessation of brood rearing resumed brood-rearing activity when they were placed in strawberry greenhouses with a pollen diet.…”

“…These results strongly support the notion that honey bee colonies expeditiously recognize and actively respond to environmental changes. As demonstrated in the previous studies [ 9 – 11 ], seasonal changes in endocrine system status and gene expressions are important factors that allow honey bees to flexibly manage the colonies via passive regulation of their population and labor division.…”