Article
Agronomy
Wenting Su, Weihua Ma, Qi Zhang, Xiao Hu, Guiling Ding, Yusuo Jiang, Jiaxing Huang
Summary: The study demonstrates the significant impact of pear flower volatiles on honey bee foraging choices.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Patrick J. Lariviere, Sean P. Leonard, Richard D. Horak, J. Elijah Powell, Jeffrey E. Barrick
Summary: Honey bees are important pollinators and model organisms for studying social behavior, development, and cognition. Researchers have engineered a bee gut bacterium, Snodgrassella alvi, to induce a sustained host RNA interference response that reduces the expression of targeted genes. This method offers a streamlined and scalable approach for studying honey bee biology.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Samantha R. Shih, Dunay M. Bach, Nicole C. Rondeau, Jessica Sam, Natalie L. Lovinger, Allison J. Lopatkin, Jonathan W. Snow
Summary: Pollination services by honey bees are critical in ecosystems, but increased death rates in bee colonies in recent years stem from complex stressors. Studying specific cellular processes and stress responses impacted by multiple stresses is crucial in understanding these interactions.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Louise Bestea, Marco Paoli, Patrick Arrufat, Brice Ronsin, Julie Carcaud, Jean-Christophe Sandoz, Rodrigo Velarde, Martin Giurfa, Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez
Summary: Honeybees possess impressive learning and memory capabilities during foraging activities and rely on a sophisticated social organization. Investigating the neural mechanisms behind honeybees' foraging motivation is crucial for both scientific and economic reasons. In a recent study, a team of researchers from various disciplines explored the role of a neuropeptide called sNPF in regulating honeybees' responses to food and food-related stimuli.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Joseana Vieira, Flavia Cristina de Paula Freitas, Alexandre Santos Cristino, Daniel Guariz Pinheiro, Luiz Roberto Aguiar, Marcela Aparecida Framartino Bezerra Laure, Livia Maria Rosatto Moda, Zila Luz Paulino Simoes, Angel Roberto Barchuk
Summary: Differential brain morphogenesis in female honey bees is a key feature of caste development, influenced by differential feeding regimes in early larval stages. The study identified 53 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the brains of queens and workers, with miRNAs potentially involved in regulating these DEGs. Experimental confirmation of miRNA interactions with specific genes suggests a regulatory network governing early brain diphenism in honey bees.
BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-GENE REGULATORY MECHANISMS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Katarzyna Bozek, Laetitia Hebert, Yoann Portugal, Greg J. Stephens
Summary: This study presents a comprehensive computational method for tracking an entire colony of honey bees in natural conditions, achieving high accuracy and demonstrating long-term monitoring of sociometric colony fluctuations. The results reveal important phenomena such as 24-hour cycles in bee populations, negative correlations between bees and brood, and increased bee activity inside comb cells at night.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Khalid Ali Khan, Hamed A. Ghramh, Zubair Ahmad, Mogbel A. A. El-Niweiri, Mohamed Elimam Ahamed Mohammed
Summary: The study found that honey bees have a strong preference for salt solutions in both summer and winter, with a notable switch in preference between seasons. In the summer, bees showed increased foraging activity, pollen collection, and brood area after consuming sodium, while in the winter, the use of potassium led to higher pollen collection and brood area. This suggests that the food preference of honey bees is closely linked to seasonal variations and the availability of floral resources.
SAUDI JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Allison M. Young, Axel Brockmann, Fred C. Dyer
Summary: The study suggests that the foraging behavior of honey bee species is influenced by factors such as nest architecture and the magnitude of reward decrease, with environmental context potentially playing a role in modulating species differences in behavior. This highlights the complex interactions of life history and ecology in shaping behavior evolution.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Longtao Yu, Xujiang He, Xinxin Shi, Weiyu Yan, Xiaobo Wu
Summary: Maternal effects in honey bees result in larger eggs in queen cells, leading to better daughter queens. In our study, we evaluated the morphological indexes, reproductive tissues, and egg-laying ability of newly reared queens. The results showed that queens reared with eggs laid in queen cells had higher reproductive capacity and offspring with better body sizes and working performance compared to the other groups. These findings have implications in apicultural and agricultural production.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Eva S. Horna Lowell, Shannon M. Murphy
Summary: Insect pollinators often forage with conspecifics on flowers, and their behavioral responses can be influenced by the presence of conspecifics. The relative number of bees on neighboring flowers has a weak effect on honey bee foraging behavior, with more bees increasing the likelihood of visits to a focal flower. This highlights the significant impacts of bee activity on neighboring flowers on pollination services.
JOURNAL OF APICULTURAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Khalid Ali Khan, Hamed A. Ghramh
Summary: The study found that honey bees efficiently foraged on 18 plant species from 11 families during the flowering period of Brassica crop. The Asteraceae family had the most plant species serving as pollen sources, followed by Solanaceae, Malvaceae, Fabaceae, and Rosaceae families with two plant species each.
JOURNAL OF KING SAUD UNIVERSITY SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Entomology
William G. Meikle, Milagra Weiss, Eli Beren
Summary: The effects of hive entrance orientation on honey bee colony activity and temperature were studied by placing hives facing different cardinal directions. Data on hive weight and temperature were recorded regularly from April 2019 to June 2020. Analysis showed that hives facing east had earlier flight activity and lower weight loss compared to hives facing west and south during the months of December to March. East-facing hives also had lower colony cluster temperatures and morning weight loss from departing foragers.
JOURNAL OF APICULTURAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yasuhiro Matsumura, Taiko Kim To, Takekazu Kunieda, Hiroki Kohno, Tetsuji Kakutani, Takeo Kubo
Summary: The study found that Mblk-1 targets genes related to synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory in the honey bee mushroom bodies, suggesting a potential role of Mblk-1 in the fine-tuning of mushroom body function during insect evolution.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Macallan Penberthy, Moira K. Dillon, Xingyao Chen, Matina C. Donaldson-Matasci
Summary: The spatial distribution of flowers has significant impacts on pollinator movement and foraging decisions. While bumble bees typically visit larger plants at a higher rate, honey bees' foraging patterns in relation to plant size and flower number are less understood. This study confirms that honey bees visit larger plants at a higher rate, despite the increased competition for resources. The study suggests that the perception of larger plants, higher nectar rewards, and lower navigation costs could explain this preference. The findings have implications for agricultural pollination, wild bee conservation, and foraging theory.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Anastasios Galanis, Philippos Vardakas, Martin Reczko, Vaggelis Harokopos, Pantelis Hatzis, Efthimios M. C. Skoulakis, Georgios A. Pavlopoulos, Solenn Patalano
Summary: Honeybees play a crucial role in providing essential ecosystem services, but they are facing pressures from human activities and the environment. Honey, as a valuable biomonitoring tool, can be used to assess the ecological niche of honeybees. This study compared different classifiers and optimized DNA extraction methods to explore the relationships between honeybees and other species, as well as the impact of honey on bee microbiota. The results demonstrate that this approach can comprehensively describe honeybee ecological niches and has the potential to assess bee health on a large scale.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2022)
