Comparison between cuticular lipids on body parts of two honey bee subspecies

Journal Article

Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed . 2013

• المجلة \ الصحيفة: Environmental and Experimental Biology
• رقم العدد: 1
• رقم الإصدار السنوي: 11
• الصفحات: 185-188

مستخلص المنشور

The body of honey bee castes (queen, workers and drones) is covered with cuticular lipids. Lipids contain various compounds, including wax esters, alcohols, fatty acids, and monoacylglycerols (Nation 2002). Roles for these lipids have been suggested, including nestmate recognition (Breed, Stiller 1992) and protecting the body from desiccation (Jones 1954; Gibbs 1995) especially regarding the long-chain hydrocarbons (Gibbs 1998). Similar characteristics have also been detected in the lipids of honey bee eggs (worker-laid eggs and queen-laid eggs). The role of the egg surface chemicals has been suggested to help workers in the discrimination between worker- and queen-laid eggs (Oldroyd, Ratnieks 2000) as well as in protecting the eggs from desiccation (Martin et al. 2004). Different components have been detected on the egg surface including: hydrocarbons, eicosanol, alcohols, aldehydes, terpenes and esters (Katzav-Gozansky et al. 2001; Katzav-Gozansky et al. 2003; Martin et al. 2004). Moreover, differences between the elemental composition of eggs from two honey bee subspecies have been found (Abou-Shaara et al. 2013).
Relatively few studies have been conducted on honey bees in regard to cuticular lipids (e.g. the studies of McDaniel et al. 1984; Carlson 1988; Schmitt et al. 2007; Kather et al. 2011) and comparison between honey bee subspecies in their cuticular lipid composition is needed. Honey bee subspecies are distributed within a wide range of environmental conditions and the discrimination between honey bee subspecies is basically based on morphological characters, including body and wing venation characters (e.g. Abou-Shaara, Al-Ghamdi 2012; Abou-Shaara 2013), as well as genetic methods (e.g. Kandemir et al. 2006). However, honey bee subspecies live under the same environmental conditions (e.g. harsh conditions) have been noticed to differ in thermal tolerance ability (Atmowidjojo et al. 1997; Abou-Shaara et al. 2012). Thus, it is expected that distinctive differences in cuticular lipids may exist between honey bee subspecies.
Therefore, the study was aimed to determine the cuticular lipid profile of body parts (head, thorax and abdomen) for two main castes in the colony (workers and queens), and for two honey bee subspecies. Regarding differences between body parts and castes the relations between lipids and function were determined. Also, differences between two honey bee subspecies in cuticular lipid composition was investigated.