Richard Freddie-Jeanne, Tarpy David R, Grozinger Christina M
Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2007 Oct 3;2(10):e980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000980.
Mating has profound effects on the physiology and behavior of female insects, and in honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens, these changes are permanent. Queens mate with multiple males during a brief period in their early adult lives, and shortly thereafter they initiate egg-laying. Furthermore, the pheromone profiles of mated queens differ from those of virgins, and these pheromones regulate many different aspects of worker behavior and colony organization. While it is clear that mating causes dramatic changes in queens, it is unclear if mating number has more subtle effects on queen physiology or queen-worker interactions; indeed, the effect of multiple matings on female insect physiology has not been broadly addressed. Because it is not possible to control the natural mating behavior of queens, we used instrumental insemination and compared queens inseminated with semen from either a single drone (single-drone inseminated, or SDI) or 10 drones (multi-drone inseminated, or MDI). We used observation hives to monitor attraction of workers to SDI or MDI queens in colonies, and cage studies to monitor the attraction of workers to virgin, SDI, and MDI queen mandibular gland extracts (the main source of queen pheromone). The chemical profiles of the mandibular glands of virgin, SDI, and MDI queens were characterized using GC-MS. Finally, we measured brain expression levels in SDI and MDI queens of a gene associated with phototaxis in worker honey bees (Amfor). Here, we demonstrate for the first time that insemination quantity significantly affects mandibular gland chemical profiles, queen-worker interactions, and brain gene expression. Further research will be necessary to elucidate the mechanistic bases for these effects: insemination volume, sperm and seminal protein quantity, and genetic diversity of the sperm may all be important factors contributing to this profound change in honey bee queen physiology, queen behavior, and social interactions in the colony.
交配对雌性昆虫的生理和行为具有深远影响，对于蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）蜂王而言，这些变化是永久性的。蜂王在成年初期的短暂时间内与多只雄蜂交配，此后不久便开始产卵。此外，交配后的蜂王信息素谱与未交配的蜂王不同，这些信息素调节着工蜂行为和蜂群组织的许多不同方面。虽然交配会使蜂王发生显著变化这一点很明确，但交配次数是否对蜂王生理或蜂王与工蜂的相互作用有更微妙的影响尚不清楚；实际上，多次交配对雌性昆虫生理的影响尚未得到广泛研究。由于无法控制蜂王的自然交配行为，我们采用器械授精的方法，比较了用来自一只雄蜂的精液授精的蜂王（单雄授精蜂王，或SDI）和用10只雄蜂的精液授精的蜂王（多雄授精蜂王，或MDI）。我们使用观察蜂箱监测蜂群中工蜂对SDI或MDI蜂王的吸引力，并通过笼养研究监测工蜂对未交配蜂王、SDI蜂王和MDI蜂王颚腺提取物（蜂王信息素的主要来源）的吸引力。利用气相色谱 - 质谱联用仪对未交配蜂王、SDI蜂王和MDI蜂王的颚腺化学图谱进行了表征。最后，我们测量了与工蜂趋光性相关基因（Amfor）在SDI和MDI蜂王大脑中的表达水平。在此，我们首次证明授精量显著影响颚腺化学图谱、蜂王与工蜂的相互作用以及大脑基因表达。有必要进行进一步研究以阐明这些影响的机制基础：授精量、精子和精浆蛋白数量以及精子的遗传多样性可能都是导致蜜蜂蜂王生理、蜂王行为以及蜂群社会相互作用发生深刻变化的重要因素。
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