Lipidomic features of honey bee and colony health during limited supplementary feeding

Clara E. Castanos; Mary C. Boyce; Tiffane Bates; A. Harvey Millar; Gavin Flematti; Nathan G. Lawler; Julia Grassl

doi:10.1111/imb.12864

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Lipidomic features of honey bee and colony health during limited supplementary feeding

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Lipidomic features of honey bee and colony health during limited supplementary feeding

Clara E. Castanos, Mary C. Boyce, Tiffane Bates, A. Harvey Millar, Gavin Flematti, Nathan G. Lawler and Julia Grassl

Insect molecular biology, Vol.32(6), pp.658-675

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/imb.12864

PMID: 37477164

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Abstract

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Entomology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Science & Technology

Honey bee nutritional health depends on nectar and pollen, which provide the main source of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids to individual bees. During malnutrition, insect metabolism accesses fat body reserves. However, this process in bees and its repercussions at the colony level are poorly understood. Using untargeted lipidomics and gene expression analysis, we examined the effects of different feeding treatments (starvation, sugar feeding and sugar + pollen feeding) on bees and correlated them with colony health indicators. We found that nutritional stress led to an increase in unsaturated triacylglycerols and diacylglycerols, as well as a decrease in free fatty acids in the bee fat body. Here, we hypothesise that stored lipids are made available through a process where unsaturations change lipid's structure. Increased gene expression of three lipid desaturases in response to malnutrition supports this hypothesis, as these desaturases may be involved in releasing fatty acyl chains for lipolysis. Although nutritional stress was evident in starving and sugar-fed bees at the colony and physiological level, only starved colonies presented long-term effects in honey production.

Details

Title: Lipidomic features of honey bee and colony health during limited supplementary feeding
Authors/Creators: Clara E. Castanos - The University of Western Australia
Mary C. Boyce - Edith Cowan University
Tiffane Bates - The University of Western Australia
A. Harvey Millar - ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology
Gavin Flematti - The University of Western Australia
Nathan G. Lawler - Edith Cowan University
Julia Grassl - The University of Western Australia
Publication Details: Insect molecular biology, Vol.32(6), pp.658-675
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Entomological Society.
Number of pages: 18
Grant note: 20160042 / Cooperative Research Centre for Honey Bee Products (CRCHBP; Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources) UWA Science Industry PhD Fellowships Program CE140100008 / Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology; Australian Research Council CVU705967 / CONACyT-Mexico; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT)
Identifiers: 991005616562207891
Murdoch Affiliation: Health Futures Institute; Centre for Computational and Systems Medicine
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Citation topics: 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology; 3.32 Entomology; 3.32.750 Bee Ecology
Web Of Science research areas: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Entomology
ESI research areas: Plant & Animal Science