School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2024 Jun;169:104128. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2024.104128. Epub 2024 Apr 22.
Social wasps exhibit a unique nutritional cycle in which adults feed larvae with prey, and larvae provide adults with larval secretions (LS). LS serves as a vital nutritional source for adults, contributing to the colony's health and reproductive success. The LS nutrient composition has been previously reported in various wasp species, yet these analyses focused solely on worker-destined larvae, overlooking the potential caste designation effects on LS composition. Using metabolomics techniques, we analysed and compared the metabolite and nutrient composition in LS of queen- and worker-destined larvae of the Oriental hornet. We found that queen-destined LS (QLS) contain greater amounts of most metabolites, including amino acids, and smaller amounts of sugars compared to worker-destined LS (WLS). The amino acid-to-sugar ratio in QLS was approximately tenfold higher than in WLS. Thus, as the colony transitions from the production of workers to the production of reproductives, it gradually experiences a nutritional shift that may influence the behaviour and physiology of the adult nest population. This caste-specific metabolite profile and nutrient composition of LS reflect the differences in the diet and physiological requirements of worker- and queen-destined larvae and may play a critical role in caste determination in social wasps.
社会性黄蜂表现出一种独特的营养循环，其中成年黄蜂用猎物喂养幼虫，而幼虫则为成年黄蜂提供幼虫分泌物（LS）。LS 是成年黄蜂的重要营养来源，有助于蚁群的健康和繁殖成功。LS 的营养成分在各种黄蜂物种中已有报道，但这些分析仅关注工蜂幼虫，忽略了 LS 组成对潜在的等级指定效应。我们使用代谢组学技术，分析和比较了东方大黄蜂的蜂王和工蜂幼虫的 LS 中的代谢物和营养成分。我们发现，与工蜂幼虫 LS（WLS）相比，蜂王幼虫 LS（QLS）含有更多数量的大多数代谢物，包括氨基酸，而糖的数量较少。QLS 中的氨基酸与糖的比例大约是 WLS 的十倍。因此，随着蚁群从工蜂的生产向生殖的生产过渡，它逐渐经历了一种营养转变，这可能会影响成年巢群的行为和生理。LS 的这种特定于等级的代谢物谱和营养成分反映了工蜂和蜂王幼虫的饮食和生理需求的差异，并可能在社会性黄蜂的等级决定中发挥关键作用。
