Abstract
Honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera) serve as attractive hosts for a variety of pathogens providing optimal temperatures, humidity, and an abundance of food. Thus, honeybees have to deal with pathogens throughout their lives and, even as larvae they are affected by severe brood diseases like the European Foulbrood caused by Melissococcus plutonius. Accordingly, it is highly adaptive that larval food jelly contains antibiotic compounds. However, although food jelly is primarily consumed by bee larvae, studies investigating the antibiotic effects of this jelly have largely concentrated on bacterial human diseases. In this study, we show that royal jelly fed to queen larvae and added to the jelly of drone and worker larvae, inhibits not only the growth of European Foulbrood‐associated bacteria but also its causative agent M. plutonius. This effect is shown to be caused by the main protein (major royal jelly protein 1) of royal jelly.
Highlights
Adult honeybees (Apis mellifera) feed their growing larvae in the hive with different food jellies depending on sex, caste, and age
We show for the first time that royal jelly (RJ) decelerates the growth of M. plutonius the causative agent of European foulbrood (EFB) and of the secondary invaders of the disease, that is, E. faecalis, B. pumilus, P. alvei and B. laterosporus
We illustrate that a large proportion of the antibiotic effect of RJ can be attributed to MRJP1
Summary
Adult honeybees (Apis mellifera) feed their growing larvae in the hive with different food jellies depending on sex, caste, and age. Given that every larva in the colony gets its share of the RJ pie, it may not be surprising that RJ harbors antibiotic properties against a variety of bacteria (Fujiwara et al, 1990; Hinglais, Hinglais, Gautherie, & Langlade, 1955; McCleskey & Melampy, 1939), though the vast majority of the studies performed are linked to bacteria causing human diseases When it comes to bee pathogens, amazingly little is known about the effect of RJ on honeybee-specific pathogens given the scientific and public awareness for global colony losses (Moritz & Erler, 2016; Potts et al, 2010). The majority of the bacteria tested in these studies were not linked to honey bee diseases and nothing is known about the antimicrobial activity of MRJPs against M. plutonius and secondary invaders of the honeybee disease EFB. We report on the effect of RJ and its main protein MRJP1 on M. plutonius and on bacterial species associated with EFB, which may reveal evolutionary relevant adaptations rather than screening human pathogens
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