New components of the honey bee ( Apis mellifera L.) queen retinue pheromone

Abstract

The honey bee queen produces pheromones that function in both releaser and primer roles such as attracting a retinue of workers around her, attracting drones on mating flights, preventing workers from reproducing at the individual (worker egg-laying) and colony (swarming) level, and regulating several other aspects of colony functioning. The queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), consisting of five synergistic components, is the only pheromone chemically identified in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen, but this pheromone does not fully duplicate the pheromonal activity of a full queen extract. To identify the remaining unknown compounds for retinue attraction, honey bee colonies were selectively bred to have low response to synthetic QMP and high response to a queen extract in a laboratory retinue bioassay. Workers from these colonies were then used in the bioassay to guide the isolation and identification of the remaining active components. Four new compounds were identified from several glandular sources that account for the majority of the difference in retinue attraction between synthetic QMP and queen extract: methyl (Z)-octadec-9-enoate (methyl oleate), (E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-prop-2-en-1-ol (coniferyl alcohol), hexadecan-1-ol, and (Z9,Z12,Z15)-octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic acid (linolenic acid). These compounds were inactive alone or in combination, and they only elicited attraction in the presence of QMP. There was still unidentified activity remaining in the queen extract. The queen therefore produces a synergistic, multiglandular pheromone blend of at least nine compounds for retinue attraction, the most complex pheromone blend known for inducing a single behavior in any organism. The semiochemicals released by a honey bee queen have many effects within the colony (1, 2). Most obvious is the retinue attractant, which encourages workers to feed and groom the queen and acquire and distribute her pheromone messages to other workers throughout the colony. These messages, which may or may not involve the same chemical components, inhibit reproduction by workers, control swarming and the production of sexuals, act as nestmate and queen recognition cues, and regulate worker tasks critical to colony growth and survival. They are also important outside of the colony during mating flights and swarming (2).The queen's mandibular glands were recognized long ago as a source of pheromonal activity, including retinue attraction. The first component of the queen mandibular pheromone, (E)-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid (9-ODA), and shortly thereafter, (E)-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid (9-HDA), were identified Ͼ40 years ago (1). However, these compounds did not match the pheromonal activity of the mandibular glands for retinue attraction. Almost 30 years passed before the chemical identity of the queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) was more fully described (3). In addition to 9-ODA and both enantiomers of 9-HDA, methyl p-hydroxybenzoate (HOB) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol (HVA) act synergistically to elicit retinue attrac...

Cooperation in an asymmetric volunteer’s dilemma game with relatedness

“…In those insect societies that are headed by a single once-mated queen, the degree of asymmetry might be higher than in those with multiple queens. In the single-queen systems, the degree of asymmetry may approach the critical point, leading queens to use pheromones to manipulate workers [40,41], which leads to more prevalent worker policing in these species [37]. The experimental results of the model developed here may help explain the different strategies of different insect societies.…”

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

“…The queen's anatomy is characterized by an enlarged ovary (180−200 ovarioles per ovary) and a sperm-storage organ, the spermatheca, that can store over 5 million spermatozoa (Kraus et al, 2004;Snodgrass, 1956). The end stylet of the queen's stinging apparatus is smooth so it can be retracted after stinging, and the queen produces a specific signature of C21-C33 cuticular hydrocarbons in addition to a pheromone blend from enlarged glands in the head (mandibular gland), abdomen (Dufour and tergite gland), and tarsus (tarsal gland); major components being (E)-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid, (E)-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid, methyl phydroxybenzoate, and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol (Free, 1987;Keeling et al, 2003).…”

Mandibular gland pheromone contents in workers and queens of Apis mellifera adansonii

“…These five compounds act together to maintain reproductive dominance and elicit worker retinue behaviour. Keeling et al (2003) identified four other components that are not of mandibular gland origin, namely methyl (Z )-octadec-9-2-en-1-o l (methyl oleate), (E )-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-prop-2-en-1-o l (coniferyl alcohol), hexadecane-1-o l and (Z9 , Z12 , Z15 )-octadeca-9, 12, 15-trienoic acid (linolenic acid), which act in synergy with QMPs to elicit retinue behaviour. This leads to a terminology shift from QMP to queen retinue pheromones (QRP) (Slessor et al, 2005).…”