Institute of Biosciences, Department of Biology, Center of the Study of Social Insects , University of São Paulo State (UNESP) , Rio Claro , São Paulo 13506-900 , Brazil.
J Proteome Res. 2018 Jul 6;17(7):2358-2369. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.8b00098. Epub 2018 Jun 1.
Aggressiveness in honeybees seems to be regulated by multiple genes, under the influence of different factors, such as polyethism of workers, environmental factors, and response to alarm pheromones, creating a series of behavioral responses. It is suspected that neuropeptides seem to be involved with the regulation of the aggressive behavior. The role of allatostatin and tachykinin-related neuropeptides in honeybee brain during the aggressive behavior is unknown, and thus worker honeybees were stimulated to attack and to sting leather targets hung in front of the colonies. The aggressive individuals were collected and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen; the heads were removed and sliced at sagittal plan. The brain slices were submitted to MALDI spectral imaging analysis, and the results of the present study reported the processing of the precursors proteins into mature forms of the neuropeptides AmAST A (59-76) (AYTYVSEYKRLPVYNFGL-NH2), AmAST A (69-76) (LPVYNFGL-NH2), AmTRP (88-96) (APMGFQGMR-NH2), and AmTRP (254-262) (ARMGFHGMR-NH2), which apparently acted in different neuropils of the honeybee brain during the aggressive behavior, possibly taking part in the neuromodulation of different aspects of this complex behavior. These results were biologically validated by performing aggressiveness-related behavioral assays using young honeybee workers that received 1 ng of AmAST A (69-76) or AmTRP (88-96) via hemocele. The young workers that were not expected to be aggressive individuals presented a complete series of aggressive behaviors in the presence of the neuropeptides, corroborating the hypothesis that correlates the presence of mature AmASTs A and AmTRPs in the honeybee brain with the aggressiveness of this insect.
蜜蜂的攻击性似乎受到多种基因的调节，这些基因受到工蜂多态性、环境因素和对报警信息素的反应等多种因素的影响，从而产生一系列行为反应。据推测，神经肽似乎参与了攻击性行为的调节。在蜜蜂大脑中，阿斯塔斯汀和速激肽相关神经肽在攻击性行为中的作用尚不清楚，因此刺激工蜂攻击并蜇刺挂在蜂群前的皮革目标。攻击性个体被收集并立即用液氮冷冻；取出头部并沿矢状面切片。脑切片进行 MALDI 光谱成像分析，本研究报告了前体蛋白加工成神经肽 AmAST A（59-76）（AYTYVSEYKRLPVYNFGL-NH2）、AmAST A（69-76）（LPVYNFGL-NH2）、AmTRP（88-96）（APMGFQGMR-NH2）和 AmTRP（254-262）（ARMGFHGMR-NH2）的成熟形式，这些神经肽显然在蜜蜂大脑的不同神经节中发挥作用攻击性行为期间，可能参与了这种复杂行为的不同方面的神经调节。这些结果通过使用年轻的蜜蜂工蜂进行攻击性相关行为测定得到了生物学验证，年轻的工蜂通过血腔接受 1 纳克的 AmAST A（69-76）或 AmTRP（88-96），它们表现出一系列完整的攻击性行为，这证实了一个假说，即成熟的 AmASTs A 和 AmTRPs 在蜜蜂大脑中的存在与这种昆虫的攻击性相关。
