Abstract
Transgenerational immune priming (TGIP) in honeybees (Apis mellifera) has been attracting increasing attention as an efficient method to protect colonies from infectious diseases. This study investigated whether feeding nurse bees peppermint oil (PO) along with a cocktail of heat-killed Ascosphaera apis and Paenibacillus larvae (A + P + PO cocktail) can promote the induction of marker genes for TGIP. In the A + P + PO cocktail-fed nurse bees, CCHamide-2 was significantly upregulated in the brain, and the body weight was highly increased. Consequently, vitellogenin (Vg) and defensin-1 showed a significant upregulation in the fat body of nurse bees with the A + P + PO cocktail. Thus, our findings indicate that PO promoted the induction of Vg and defensin-1 in nurse bees upon ingestion of the A + P + PO cocktail.
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