Shaw Jeremy A, Boyd Alastair, House Michael, Cowin Gary, Baer Boris
Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
School of Physics, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2018 Sep 19;5(9):181163. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181163. eCollection 2018 Sep.
The honeybee is one of many animal species for which empirical evidence of a magnetic sense has been provided. The underlying mechanisms postulated for magnetoreception in bees are varied, but most point towards the abdomen as the most likely anatomical region for its location, partly owing to the large accumulation of iron in trophocyte cells that comprise the honeybee fat body. Using a multi-modal imaging and analysis approach, we have investigated iron in the honeybee, with a particular focus on the abdomen and the utility of such techniques as applied to magnetoreception. Abdominal iron is shown to accumulate rapidly, reaching near maximum levels only 5 days after emerging from the comb and is associated with the accumulation of iron within the fat body. While fat body iron could be visualized, no regions of interest, other than perhaps the fat body itself, were identified as potential sites for magnetoreceptive cells. If an iron-based magnetoreceptor exists within the honeybee abdomen the large accumulation of iron in the fat body is likely to impede its discovery.
蜜蜂是众多已被提供磁觉经验证据的动物物种之一。假定的蜜蜂磁感受潜在机制多种多样，但大多数都指向腹部是其最可能的解剖区域，部分原因是构成蜜蜂脂肪体的滋养细胞中铁的大量积累。我们使用多模态成像和分析方法研究了蜜蜂体内的铁，特别关注腹部以及此类技术在磁感受方面的应用。结果表明，腹部铁迅速积累，从蜂巢中羽化后仅5天就达到接近最高水平，并且与脂肪体内铁的积累有关。虽然可以看到脂肪体中的铁，但除了脂肪体本身外，没有其他感兴趣的区域被确定为磁感受细胞的潜在位点。如果蜜蜂腹部存在基于铁的磁感受器，那么脂肪体中铁的大量积累可能会妨碍其被发现。
