Abstract

Eusocial insects live in teeming societies with thousands of their kin. In this crowded environment, workers combat disease by removing or burying their dead or diseased nestmates. For honey bees, we found that hygienic brood-removal behavior is triggered by two odorants – β-ocimene and oleic acid – which are released from brood upon freeze-killing. β-ocimene is a co-opted pheromone that normally signals larval food-begging, whereas oleic acid is a conserved necromone across arthropod taxa. Interestingly, the odorant blend can induce hygienic behavior more consistently than either odorant alone. We suggest that the volatile β-ocimene flags hygienic workers’ attention, while oleic acid is the death cue, triggering removal. Bees with high hygienicity detect and remove brood with these odorants faster than bees with low hygienicity, and both molecules are strong ligands for hygienic behavior-associated odorant binding proteins (OBP16 and OBP18). Odorants that induce low levels of hygienic behavior, however, are weak ligands for these OBPs. We are therefore beginning to paint a picture of the molecular mechanism behind this complex behavior, using odorants associated with freeze-killed brood as a model.

Details

Title
A death pheromone, oleic acid, triggers hygienic behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)
Author
McAfee, Alison 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chapman, Abigail 1 ; Iovinella, Immacolata 2 ; Gallagher-Kurtzke, Ylonna 1 ; Collins, Troy F 1 ; Higo, Heather 1 ; Madilao, Lufiani L 3 ; Pelosi, Paolo 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Foster, Leonard J 1 

 Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 
 Dipartimento di Biologia Università degli Studi di Firenze Via Madonna del Piano 6, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy 
 Wine Research Center, Food, Nutrition and Health Building, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 
 Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Biosensor Technologies, 24 Konrad-Lorenzstrasse, Tulln, Austria 
Pages
1-13
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Apr 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2023410542
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.