Abstract
In the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, queens and workers have different longevity although they share the same genome. Queens consume royal jelly (RJ) as the main food throughout their life, including as adults, but workers only eat worker jelly when they are larvae less than 3 days old. In order to explore the effect of RJ and the components affecting longevity of worker honey bees, we first determined the optimal dose for prolonging longevity of workers as 4% RJ in 50% sucrose solution, and developed a method of obtaining long lived workers. We then compared the effects of longevity extension by RJ 4% with bee-collected pollen from rapeseed (Brassica napus). Lastly, we determined that a water soluble RJ protein obtained by precipitation with 60% ammonium sulfate (RJP60) contained the main component for longevity extension after comparing the effects of RJ crude protein extract (RJCP), RJP30 (obtained by precipitation with 30% ammonium sulfate), and RJ ethanol extract (RJEE). Understanding what regulates worker longevity has potential to help increase colony productivity and improve crop pollination efficiency.
Highlights
Royal jelly (RJ) is a yellow or pale syrup-like substance which is secreted by the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of young honey bees (‘‘nurses’’) mainly for feeding the queen larvae and adults (Fujita et al, 2012)
The yields of RJ crude protein extract (RJCP), RJ proteins with 30% (RJP30), RJP60 and RJ ethanol extract (RJEE) were 17.43 ± 0.07%, 1.50 ± 0.03%, 17.06 ± 0.09% and 15.40 ± 0.07% respectively
The main finding of this study is that 4% royal jelly in sugar syrup has the best effect on extending the longevity of workers (Fig. 2)
Summary
Royal jelly (RJ) is a yellow or pale syrup-like substance which is secreted by the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of young honey bees (‘‘nurses’’) mainly for feeding the queen larvae and adults (Fujita et al, 2012). Worker destined larvae (younger than 3 days old) will develop into queen if they are fed with RJ in queen cells. Caged honey bees have been used to study many factors affecting longevity (reviewed by Williams et al, 2013), for example, by Nosema infection (Milbrath et al, 2015) and nutrition (Schmidt, Thoenes & Levin, 1987; Wu, Anelli & Sheppard, 2011; Paoli et al, 2014; How to cite this article Yang et al (2017), Longevity extension of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) by royal jelly: optimal dose and active ingredient.
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