Graphical Abstract
Highlights
In-depth proteome underpins the gland ontogeny and age-specific activity of the HGs.
The well-developed acini in the HGs of NBs promote the RJ secretary activities.
The enhanced protein and energy metabolism in the HGs boost the stronger RJ secretion of RJBs.
Abstract
Royal jelly (RJ) is a secretion of the hypopharyngeal glands (HGs) of honeybee workers. High royal jelly producing bees (RJBs), a stock of honeybees selected from Italian bees (ITBs), have developed a stronger ability to produce RJ than ITBs. However, the mechanism underpinning the high RJ-producing performance in RJBs is still poorly understood. We have comprehensively characterized and compared the proteome across the life span of worker bees between the ITBs and RJBs. Our data uncover distinct molecular landscapes that regulate the gland ontogeny and activity corresponding with age-specific tasks. Nurse bees (NBs) have a well-developed acini morphology and cytoskeleton of secretory cells in HGs to prime the gland activities of RJ secretion. In RJB NBs, pathways involved in protein synthesis and energy metabolism are functionally induced to cement the enhanced RJ secretion compared with ITBs. In behavior-manipulated RJB NBs, the strongly expressed proteins implicated in protein synthesis and energy metabolism further demonstrate their critical roles in the regulation of RJ secretion. Our findings provide a novel understanding of the mechanism consolidating the high RJ-output in RJBs.
Footnotes
Author contributions: H.H. and J.L. designed research; H.H., M.F., Q.W., Y.F., and C.M. performed research; H.H., G.B., and L.M. analyzed data; H.H., G.B., and B.H. wrote the paper; X.Z., F.W., and L.M. contributed new reagents/analytic tools.
↵* This work is supported by the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (CAAS-ASTIP-2015-IAR), and the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-Industry Technology Research System (CARS-44) in China.
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This article contains supplemental material.
- Received December 12, 2018.
- © 2019 Hu et al.
Published by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Author's Choice—Final version open access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license.