Brodschneider Robert, Omar Eslam, Crailsheim Karl
University of Graz, Institute of Biology, Graz, Austria.
Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
Front Physiol. 2022 Dec 9;13:1004150. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.1004150. eCollection 2022.
We investigated the effect of adult honey bee pollen nutrition on the flight performance of honey bees. Therefore, caged bees were allowed to perform 30 min of defecation/training flights every second day before flight performance of pollen-fed bees and pollen-deprived bees older than 16 days were compared in a flight mill. We first fed 10 µL of 1 M glucose solution to bees, and after they metabolized this during flight, they were fed 10 µL of 2 M glucose solution for a second flight test. Pollen-deprived bees flew longer and further than pollen-fed bees in both flights. Pollen-fed bees flew faster in the early period at the beginning of flights, whereas pollen-deprived bees were faster in the final phases. Pollen-fed bees were able to raise their maximum flight speed in 2 M glucose solution flights, whereas pollen-constraint bees were not. The two groups did not differ in abdomen fresh weight, but the fresh weight of the head and thorax and dry weight of the head, thorax and abdomen were higher in pollen-fed bees. In a second experiment, we constrained pollen consumption of caged bees during the first 7 days and compared daily consumption of bees from day 8-16 to consumption of bees unrestricted in pollen. We found that pollen-deprived bees perceive the pollen shortage and try to compensate for their needs by consuming significantly more pollen at the later phase of their life than pollen-fed bees of the same age. Still, bees constrained from pollen in the first 7 days did only reach 51.1% of the lifetime consumption of unconstrained bees. This shows that bees can sense the need for essential nutrients from pollen, but their physiological apparatus does not allow them to fully compensate for their early life constraint. Pollen deprivation only in the first 7 days of worker life likewise significantly reduced fresh and dry weights of the body sections (head, thorax, and abdomen) and survival. This underlines the importance of protein consumption in a short critical period early in adult bees' lives for their development and their performance later in life.
我们研究了成年蜜蜂花粉营养对蜜蜂飞行性能的影响。因此，在对花粉喂养的蜜蜂和16日龄以上花粉缺乏的蜜蜂进行飞行磨比较之前，每隔一天让关在笼中的蜜蜂进行30分钟的排便/训练飞行。我们首先给蜜蜂喂食10微升1M的葡萄糖溶液，在它们飞行过程中代谢完该溶液后，再给它们喂食10微升2M的葡萄糖溶液进行第二次飞行测试。在两次飞行中，花粉缺乏的蜜蜂比花粉喂养的蜜蜂飞行时间更长、距离更远。花粉喂养的蜜蜂在飞行开始的早期飞得更快，而花粉缺乏的蜜蜂在最后阶段飞得更快。花粉喂养的蜜蜂在2M葡萄糖溶液飞行中能够提高其最大飞行速度，但花粉受限蜜蜂则不能。两组蜜蜂腹部鲜重没有差异，但花粉喂养的蜜蜂头部和胸部的鲜重以及头部、胸部和腹部的干重更高。在第二个实验中，我们在最初7天限制关在笼中的蜜蜂的花粉摄入量，并将第8 - 16天蜜蜂的每日花粉摄入量与花粉摄入不受限制的蜜蜂进行比较。我们发现，花粉缺乏的蜜蜂察觉到花粉短缺，并试图在其生命后期通过比同龄花粉喂养的蜜蜂消耗更多的花粉来弥补自身需求。然而，在最初7天受到花粉限制的蜜蜂，其一生的花粉摄入量仅达到不受限制蜜蜂的51.1%。这表明蜜蜂能够感知对花粉中必需营养物质的需求，但其生理机制不允许它们完全弥补早期生命中的营养限制状况。仅在工蜂生命的前7天剥夺花粉同样会显著降低身体各部分（头部、胸部和腹部）的鲜重和干重以及存活率。这凸显了成年蜜蜂生命早期短暂关键时期蛋白质摄入对其发育以及后期性能表现的重要性。
