Degrandi-Hoffman Gloria, Eckholm Bruce, Huang Ming
Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS;
Coupeville, WA, USA.
J Vis Exp. 2015 Mar 17(97):52448. doi: 10.3791/52448.
Honey bees obtain nutrients from pollen they collect and store in the hive as beebread. We developed methods to control the pollen source that bees collect and convert to beebread by placing colonies in a specially constructed enclosed flight area. Methods were developed to analyze the protein and amino acid composition of the pollen and beebread. We also describe how consumption of the beebread was measured and methods used to determine adult worker bee hemolymph protein titers after feeding on beebread for 4, 7 and 11 days after emergence. Methods were applied to determine if genotype affects the conversion of pollen to beebread and the rate that bees consume and acquire protein from it. Two subspecies (European and Africanized honey bees; EHB and AHB respectively) were provided with the same pollen source. Based on the developed methods, beebread made by both subspecies had lower protein concentrations and pH values than the pollen. In general, amino acid concentrations in beebread made by either EHB or AHB were similar and occurred at higher levels in beebread than in pollen. Both AHB and EHB consumed significantly more of the beebread made by AHB than by EHB. Though EHB and AHB consumed similar amounts of each type of beebread, hemolymph protein concentrations in AHB were higher than in EHB. Differences in protein acquisition between AHB and EHB might reflect environmental adaptations related to the geographic region where each subspecies evolved. These differences could contribute to the successful establishment of AHB populations in the New World because of the effects on brood rearing and colony growth.
蜜蜂从它们采集并储存于蜂巢中作为蜂粮的花粉中获取营养。我们开发了一些方法来控制蜜蜂采集并转化为蜂粮的花粉来源，具体做法是将蜂群放置在一个特别建造的封闭飞行区域内。我们还开发了分析花粉和蜂粮中蛋白质及氨基酸组成的方法。我们还描述了如何测量蜂粮的消耗量，以及在成年工蜂羽化后4天、7天和11天喂食蜂粮后用于测定其血淋巴蛋白滴度的方法。这些方法被用于确定基因型是否会影响花粉向蜂粮的转化以及蜜蜂消耗并从中获取蛋白质的速率。为两个亚种（欧洲蜜蜂和非洲化蜜蜂，分别简称为EHB和AHB）提供了相同的花粉来源。基于所开发的方法，两个亚种制作的蜂粮的蛋白质浓度和pH值均低于花粉。一般来说，EHB或AHB制作的蜂粮中的氨基酸浓度相似，且在蜂粮中的含量高于花粉。AHB和EHB消耗的AHB制作的蜂粮都明显多于EHB制作的蜂粮。虽然EHB和AHB消耗的每种蜂粮数量相似，但AHB的血淋巴蛋白浓度高于EHB。AHB和EHB在蛋白质获取方面的差异可能反映了与每个亚种进化所在地理区域相关的环境适应性。由于对育雏和蜂群生长的影响，这些差异可能有助于AHB种群在新世界的成功建立。
