A scientific note on E-β-ocimene, a new volatile primer pheromone that inhibits worker ovary development in honey bees

Autor: Yves Le Conte, Jean-Marc Bécard, Didier Crauser, Dominique Beslay, Erika Plettner, Fanny Choteau, Jean-Christophe Lenoir, Guy Costagliola, Alban Maisonnasse
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: Apidologie 5 (40), 562–564. (2009)
ISSN: 1297-9678
0044-8435
DOI: 10.1051/apido/2009024
Popis: In social insects, larvae are completely dependent on adults to complete their development. In honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), larval development requires that larvae engage workers in nursing tasks rather than allocating energy in other activities (Le Conte and Hefetz, 2008). Indeed, in the absence of any constraint, workers tend to become active reproductive individual. The queen inhibits worker ovary development via pheromones (Hoover et al., 2003; Wossler and Crewe, 1999), but the inhibition of worker ovary development seems superior when bees are exposed to unsealed brood (Kropacova and Haslbachova, 1970, 1971). Components of the brood pheromone have already been identified and consist of a blend of 10 esters (Le Conte et al., 1989, 1990). Two of these low volatility compounds have been demonstrated to partially decrease worker ovary development (Mohammedi et al., 1998; Pankiw and Garza, 2007). Thus, we asked whether brood emits volatile compounds that could also have an effect on worker ovary activation. We identified a new highly volatile molecule from the larvae E-β-ocimene, that inhibits worker ovary maturation. We used Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) (65 μm Carbowax) to sample volatiles emitted by different larval instars. We analyzed 20 larvae at stage 1, 2–3 or 10 larvae at stage 4–5. Larvae were kept in a 15 mL closed vial for 20 min in an incubator at 34 ◦C and 50% humidity (N = 8
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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