Effects of essential amino acid supplementation to promote honey bee gland and muscle development in cages and colonies

Effects of essential amino acid supplementation to promote honey bee gland and muscle development in cages and colonies

[Display omitted] •Caged bees fed essential amino acids developed head weights similar to nurse bees.•Caged bees fed essential amino acids developed thorax weights similar to foragers.•Poor bee nutrition can be remedied with an essential amino acid diet to support bee growth.•Nutrition drives colony...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of insect physiology Vol. 117; p. 103906
Main Authors: Hendriksma, Harmen P., Pachow, Collin D., Nieh, James C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2019
Subjects:
Amino Acids
Animal Husbandry
Animals
Bees - growth & development
Complementation
Deficiency
Diet
Dietary Supplements
Hypopharyngeal glands
Muscle Development
Nutrition
AA
P
C
EAA
Diet
Nutrition
Deficiency
Complementation
Hypopharyngeal glands
NAA
s, AAs, EAAs, NAAs
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Summary:[Display omitted] •Caged bees fed essential amino acids developed head weights similar to nurse bees.•Caged bees fed essential amino acids developed thorax weights similar to foragers.•Poor bee nutrition can be remedied with an essential amino acid diet to support bee growth.•Nutrition drives colony growth via nurses: colonies with heavy nurse bees rear more brood.•Feeding EAA to colonies may increase individual bee growth and brood rearing. There is growing concern about the impact of poor nutrition on honey bee health. With caged bee experiments and whole-colony field experiments, we examined the effects of supplementing bees with essential amino acids (EAA), or a control treatment of nonessential amino acids (NAA). Caged bees fed EAA developed significantly greater head weights than controls, weights that were similar to nurse bees. Caged bees fed EAA developed significantly greater thorax weights than controls, weights that were similar to foragers. Higher head and thorax weights may respectively reflect increased glandular development in nurse bees and higher flight muscle mass in forager bees. In our field study, 29% of the pollen collected by our honey bee colonies came from eucalyptus trees. Amino acid analyses revealed no EAA deficiencies for the bee-collected polyfloral pollen or for monofloral eucalyptus pollen. Colonies fed 29 g EAA supplement may have slightly increased individual bee growth and brood rearing, but this effect was not significant. A clear colony result was a correlation between nurse bee physiology and brood development: 17% increase in nurse bee weight corresponded to 100% more capped brood cells (R2 = 0.38). We suggest that colony supplementation should target nurse bee nutrition. Nurse bees eventually become forager bees. Hence, increased glandular development may support colony brood development and greater flight muscle mass may assist colony foraging.
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ISSN:0022-1910
1879-1611
DOI:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2019.103906