Peng Zhi-Wei, Hung Yi-Ting, Wu Ming-Cheng
Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2024 Dec 5;14(1):30277. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-82094-3.
This study investigates the impact of bee pollen nutrition on the royal jelly production of honey bees (Apis mellifera). Results demonstrate that pollen diet significantly impacts hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) development and the expression of genes associated with royal jelly biosynthesis. Bees fed Brassica napus pollen exhibited superior HPG development, and increased mrjp1 expression (encoding a key royal jelly protein). While the cyp450 6AS8 gene expression (encoding a key enzyme in 10-HDA biosynthesis) was increased by pollen consumption, no distinct expression patterns were observed among the different pollen types tested. An in vitro bee cage platform for royal jelly production has been established to further understand the mechanisms behind royal jelly production in bees. The experiment demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of worker bees and the total yield of royal jelly per cage. However, when the number of worker bees is low, the amount of royal jelly each individual worker bee needs to produce increases. In conclusion, these findings enhance our understanding of the role of bee pollen nutrition in royal jelly production. Furthermore, the results from this in vitro bee cage platform suggest that the number of worker bees is a critical factor in royal jelly production, and that bees may possess a controllable mechanism for regulating royal jelly secretion.
本研究调查了蜂花粉营养对蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）蜂王浆生产的影响。结果表明，花粉饮食对咽下腺（HPG）发育以及与蜂王浆生物合成相关的基因表达有显著影响。喂食甘蓝型油菜花粉的蜜蜂表现出更优的咽下腺发育，且mrjp1表达增加（mrjp1编码一种关键的蜂王浆蛋白）。虽然花粉消耗会增加cyp450 6AS8基因表达（cyp450 6AS8编码10 - 羟基癸酸生物合成中的一种关键酶），但在所测试的不同花粉类型中未观察到明显的表达模式。已建立了一个用于蜂王浆生产的体外蜂笼平台，以进一步了解蜜蜂蜂王浆生产背后的机制。实验表明工蜂数量与每个蜂笼中蜂王浆的总产量之间呈正相关。然而，当工蜂数量较少时，每只工蜂需要生产的蜂王浆量会增加。总之，这些发现增进了我们对蜂花粉营养在蜂王浆生产中作用的理解。此外，这个体外蜂笼平台的结果表明，工蜂数量是蜂王浆生产中的一个关键因素，并且蜜蜂可能拥有一种可控制的蜂王浆分泌调节机制。
