School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
The ADAMA Center for Novel Delivery Systems in Crop Protection, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Oct 29;121(44):e2410874121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2410874121. Epub 2024 Oct 21.
Ethanol, a natural by-product of sugar fermentation, can be found in various fruits and nectar. Although many animals routinely consume ethanol in low concentrations as part of their natural diets, its inherent toxicity can cause severe damage. Even species particularly well adapted to ethanol consumption face detrimental effects when exposed to concentrations above 4%. Here, we investigated the metabolism of ethanol and its impact on survival and behavior in the Oriental hornet (), a social wasp that naturally consumes ethanol. We show that chronic ethanol consumption, even at concentrations as high as 80%, had no impact on hornet mortality, construction behavior, or agonistic behavior. Using C1 labeled ethanol, we show that hornets efficiently metabolized ingested ethanol and at a much higher rate than honey bees. The presence of multiple copies of the alcohol dehydrogenase (NADP+) gene in the genera suggests a potential mechanism for ethanol tolerance. These findings support the hypothesis that the mutualistic relationship between ethanol-producing organisms and vespid hosts may be at the origin of their remarkable capacity to utilize and metabolize ethanol.
乙醇是糖发酵的天然副产物，存在于各种水果和花蜜中。虽然许多动物在其天然饮食中经常以低浓度的形式摄入乙醇，但它的内在毒性会造成严重的损害。即使是特别适应乙醇摄入的物种，当暴露在高于 4%的浓度下时，也会受到不利影响。在这里，我们研究了乙醇的代谢及其对东方大黄蜂（）生存和行为的影响，这是一种自然摄入乙醇的社会性胡蜂。我们表明，即使在 80%的高浓度下，慢性乙醇摄入对大黄蜂的死亡率、筑巢行为或攻击行为都没有影响。使用 C1 标记的乙醇，我们表明大黄蜂能够有效地代谢摄入的乙醇，而且代谢速度比蜜蜂快得多。在 属中存在多个酒精脱氢酶（NADP+）基因，这表明了乙醇耐受的潜在机制。这些发现支持了这样一种假设，即产乙醇生物和胡蜂宿主之间的互利关系可能是它们利用和代谢乙醇的非凡能力的起源。
