Institute of Apicultural Research/Key Laboratory of Pollinating Insect Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G2L3, Canada.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Jan 15;225:848-860. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.11.150. Epub 2022 Nov 20.
Age-based division of labor among workers is a fundamental life-history trait of many social insects, including the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera L. Extensive studies of the causation of the most pronounced transition from performing tasks in the nest to outside foraging indicate hormonal regulation of complex physiological changes. However, the proximate neurobiological mechanisms that cause the behavioral repertoire to change are still not understood and require novel approaches to be fully characterized. Thus, we established the first comprehensive monoclonal antibody microarray in honey bees with 16,320 antibodies to directly identify proteins in the brain that regulate the transition to foraging. Major royal jelly protein (MRJP) 1 and MRJP3 were identified as potential protein effectors and further investigated. A series of experimental manipulations of the workers' behavioral transition led to changes in MRJP1 and MRJP3 quantities in accordance with their presumed functional role. Injection of MRJPs into the brain resulted in increased task-reversal from foraging to nursing and decreased task-progression from nursing to foraging, while the latter was increased by injection with MRJP antibodies. Finally, down-regulation of MRJP1 and MRJP3 expression via RNAi injection into the brain increased the transition from in-hive nursing to outside foraging, confirming a causal role of these two proteins in the proximate regulation of behavior and life-history of honey bee workers. Interaction partners of MRJP1 and MRJP3 in the honey bee brain included other regulators of honey bee behavior and life history. Thus, our transformative methodological advancement of proteome analysis in honey bees reveals novel regulators of honey bee behavior, extends our understanding of the functional pleiotropy of MRJPs, and supports a general nutrition-based model of the regulation of the age-based division of labor in honey bees.
工人的年龄分工是许多社会性昆虫的基本生活史特征，包括西方蜜蜂，Apis mellifera L. 大量研究表明，导致最明显的从在巢中执行任务转变为外出觅食的过渡的原因是激素对复杂生理变化的调节。然而，导致行为范围发生变化的近似神经生物学机制尚不清楚，需要新的方法来充分描述。因此，我们建立了第一个在蜜蜂中综合性的单克隆抗体微阵列，用 16320 种抗体来直接鉴定调节觅食过渡的大脑中的蛋白质。蜂王浆蛋白 1（MRJP1）和 MRJP3 被确定为潜在的蛋白质效应物，并进一步进行了研究。对工蜂行为转变的一系列实验操作导致了 MRJP1 和 MRJP3 数量的变化，这与它们的假定功能作用一致。将 MRJPs 注射到大脑中会导致从觅食到护理的任务逆转增加，而从护理到觅食的任务进展减少，而注射 MRJP 抗体则会增加后者。最后，通过将 RNAi 注射到大脑中下调 MRJP1 和 MRJP3 的表达会增加从巢内护理到外部觅食的转变，从而证实了这两种蛋白质在蜜蜂工蜂行为和生活史的直接调节中起着因果作用。MRJP1 和 MRJP3 在蜜蜂大脑中的相互作用伙伴包括其他蜜蜂行为和生活史的调节剂。因此，我们在蜜蜂中进行蛋白质组分析的变革性方法进展揭示了蜜蜂行为的新调节剂，扩展了我们对 MRJP 功能多效性的理解，并支持了基于营养的蜜蜂年龄分工调节的一般模型。
