The relationship between work efficiency and population size in a honeybee colony

Fukuda, Hiromi

doi:10.1007/bf02515602

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Late-summer bees initiate foraging later in life than early-summer bees in temperate climates (32), as in our experiments ( Fig. 2 A); this difference is associated with maintenance of larger lipid stores later in life (33,34) and lower blood titers of JH (35).…”

Section: Characterization Of Insulin-related Neuropeptide and Receptorsupporting

confidence: 67%

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Ament

Corona

Pollock

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

310

341

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It has been proposed that one route of behavioral evolution involves novel regulation of conserved genes. Age-related division of labor in honey bee colonies, a highly derived behavioral system, involves the performance of different feeding-related tasks by different groups of individuals. Older bees acquire the colony's food by foraging for nectar and pollen, and the younger ''nurse'' bees feed larvae processed foods. The transition from hive work to foraging has been shown to be socially regulated and associated both with decreases in abdominal lipid stores and with increases in brain expression of genes implicated in feeding behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Here we show that division of labor is influenced by a canonical regulator of food intake and energy balance in solitary species, the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway. Foragers had higher levels of IIS gene expression in the brain and abdomen than did nurses, despite their low lipid stores. These differences are likely nutritionally mediated because manipulations that induced low lipid stores in young bees also up-regulated these genes. Changes in IIS also causally influenced the timing of behavioral maturation: inhibition of the insulin-related target of rapamycin pathway delayed the onset of foraging in a seasonally dependent manner. In addition, pathway analyses of microarray data revealed that nurses and foragers differ in brain energy metabolism gene expression, but the differences are opposite predictions based on their insulin-signaling status. These results suggest that changes in the regulation of the IIS pathway are associated with social behavior.Apis mellifera ͉ behavioral maturation ͉ social insect ͉ nutrition ͉ foraging A n important problem in biology is to understand the molecular basis for complex behavior. It has been proposed that one route of behavioral evolution involves novel regulation of conserved genes (1). It is well established that orthologous sets of genes regulate the development of body plans across taxa (2), but this idea has only recently begun to be tested for behavior (3,4).Age-related division of labor in honey bee colonies involves the performance of different food-related tasks by different groups of individuals. Nurse bees feed brood for the first 1-2 weeks of adult life, process and store food for another week, and then shift to foraging for nectar and pollen at Ϸ2-3 weeks of age (5). This division of labor is socially regulated; bees speed up, slow down, or reverse their maturation in response to colony needs (6). Although the mechanics of foraging in honey bees are similar to food-gathering in solitary bees, there are fundamental differences. Honey bees forage to improve the fitness of the colony rather than their own; they collect food when their colony needs it. Honey bees feed on honey before exiting the hive to fuel their foraging flights, and most of the food obtained on a foraging trip is not for their own sustenance.We hypothesized that the regulation of honey bee behavioral mat...

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Section: Characterization Of Insulin-related Neuropeptide and Receptorsupporting

confidence: 67%

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Ament

Corona

Pollock

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

310

341

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The colonies' defense systems are destabilized (Schneider and McNally, 1992), the workers become more accepting of abnormal individuals including diploid drones (Polaczek et al, 2000), the colonies' foraging efforts are less efficient (Eckert et al, 1994), and the ability to regulate the nest environment can collapse (Omholt, 1987). The proximate mechanisms responsible for the collective loss of surveillance functions are not well understood compared to the principles that underlie the foraging and thermal properties of healthy honeybee colonies (Anderson and Ratnieks, 1999;Bourke, 1999;Eckert et al, 1994;Free and Racey, 1968;Fukuda, 1983;Seeley, 1995;Wilson et al, 1999). Yet, it is clear that features of the social connectivity of the honeybee society are compromised in units that are very small (Villumstad, 1977).…”

Section: A Growth Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Amdam¹,

Seehuus²

2006

Advances in Cancer Research

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Animal models contribute to the understanding of molecular mechanism of cancer, revealing complex roles of altered cellular-signaling networks and deficient surveillance systems. Analogous pathologies are documented in an unconventional model organism that receives attention in research on systems theory, evolution, and aging. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony is an advanced integrative unit, a "superorganism" in which order is controlled via complex signaling cascades and surveillance schemes. A facultatively sterile caste, the workers, regulates patterns of growth, differentiation, homeostasis, and death. Workers differentiate into temporal phenotypes in response to dynamic social cues; chemosensory signals that can translate into dramatic physiological responses, including programmed cell death. Temporal worker forms function together, and effectively identify and terminate abnormal colony members ranging from embryos to adults. As long as this regulatory system is operational at a colony level, the unit survives and propagates. However, if the worker phenotypes that collectively govern order become too few or change into malignant forms that bypass control mechanisms to replicate aberrantly; order is replaced by disorder that ultimately leads to the destruction of the society. In this chapter we describe fundamental properties of honeybee social organization, and explore conditions that lead to states of disorder. Our hope is that this chapter will be an inspirational source for ongoing and future work in the field of cancer research.

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“…The brood consists of eggs (5% of the total colony population), larvae (10%) and pupae (21%), estimated from Bodenheimer (1937) and Fukuda (1983). Seeley (1982) mentioned that bees in the youngest age class (0-2 days) are associated with brood production by cleaning the empty brood cells to prepare the cells for reuse.…”

Section: Division Of Labor and Task Partitioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inner nest homeostasis in a changing environment with special emphasis on honey bee brood nursing and pollen supply

2004

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-To reproduce successfully, a honey bee colony has to rear brood efficiently. This requires a fecund queen and depends on the coordinated activities of workers in brood care, in foraging, and in maintaining inner nest homeostasis. Maintaining homeostasis involves thermal regulation of the brood area and providing a steady supply of nutrients, which requires building food reserves during favorable weather so that the brood can be well fed even during times of low nutritional influx. The workforce of adult bees is appropriately divided among the required tasks, and the wax comb itself is spatially organized in a way that saves energy and supports brood nursing. The ability to achieve this homeostasis results from a set of individual behaviors and communication processes performed in parallel by thousands of bees. In this review, we discuss these proximate individual mechanisms that lead to the precise regulation of the complex system that is a honey bee society.Apis mellifera / homeostasis / nursing / pollen / self-organization

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The relationship between work efficiency and population size in a honeybee colony

Cited by 24 publications

References 15 publications

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Inner nest homeostasis in a changing environment with special emphasis on honey bee brood nursing and pollen supply

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