Pheromones honeybee

The repertoire of chemicals that can be used for communication is limited by the biosynthetic ability of the insect. Compared to other insect orders, pheromone biosynthesis in Hymenoptera has received little study [191]. However, the biosynthetic origins of chemically diverse hymenopteran semiochemicals likely include aromatic, fatty acid, and terpenoid pathways as well as simple modifications of host-derived precursors. Notable recent studies include the biosynthesis of the fatty acid components (2 )-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid 52 and (2 )-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid of the honeybee queen mandibular pheromone from octadecanoic acid [192,193], and the aliphatic alcohol and ester... 

Slessor KN,Foster LJ,Winston ML (1998) Royal flavours honeybee queen pheromones. In Vander Meer RK, Breed MD, Espelie KE, Winston ML (eds) Pheromone communication in social insects ants, wasps, bees and termites. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado 331... 

Largely, the insect detectors for pheromones and other semiochemicals are arrays of hair-like sensilla distributed over the surface of the antennae and palps. In some species, such as scarab beetles [3, 4] and the honeybee [5], semiochemicals are received by olfactory plates. The more ubiquitous hair-like sensilla typically consist of hollow cuticular hairs (10-400 pm long, 1-5 pm thick) innervated by one or several olfactory receptor cells (neurons) and three auxiliary cells [6]. 

The wax pheromones of honeybees that honey guides use as feeding stimuli have been discussed above (p. 352). 

Plettner E., Slessor K. N., Winston M. L. and Oliver J. E. (1996) Caste-selective pheromone biosynthesis in honeybees. Science 271, 1851-1853. 

Among the social Hymenoptera, one of the best-understood examples is the sex pheromone used by the queen honeybee to attract drones for mating. This pheromone is produced in the mandibular gland that resides in the head capsule (Barbier and Lederer, 1960 Callow and Johnson, 1960 Callow et al., 1964). In... 

The best understood of the sexual pheromones of social insects is the queen substance of honeybees. Interestingly, the queen substance used for queen control inside the nest is also the substance used by virgin queens to attract drones for mating. Callow and Johnston (1960) and Barbier and Lederer (1960) identified 9-keto-2(E)-decenoic acid ([E]-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid) (9-ODA) as major components of the queen mandibular glands. 9-Hydroxy-2(E)-decenoic acid is also present (Callow et al., 1964) and together both attract drones. Additional components of the queen retinue pheromone have recently been identified (Keeling et al., 2003). 

Figure 11.2 Biosynthetic pathways leading to honeybee worker and queen mandibular gland pheromones. Reprinted with permission from Plettner E., et al. (1966), 1966 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Moritz R. F. A., Simon U. E. and Crewe R. M. (2000) Pheromonal contests between honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis). Naturwissenschaften 87, 395-397. 

Oldroyd B. P., Ratnieks F. L. W. and Wossler T. C. (2002) Egg-marking pheromones in honeybees Apis mellifera. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 51, 590-591. 

PankiwT. and PageR. E., Jr (2001) Brood pheromone modulates honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) sucrose response thresholds. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 49, 206-213. 

Danty E., Briand L., Michard-Vanhee C., Perez V., Arnold G. and Gaudemer O., Huet D., Huet J. C., Ouali C., Masson C. and Pernollet J. C. (1999) Cloning and expression of a queen pheromone-binding protein in the honeybee an olfactory-specific, developmentally regulated protein. J. Neurosci. 19, 7468-7475. 

Except where indicated, taken from pheromone compendia (a) M. S. Mayer and J. R. McLaughlin. Handbook of Insect Pheromones and Sex Attractants. 1991 CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, (b) (Mori, 1998) (c) J. Hardie and A. K. Minks (eds.). Pheromones of Non-Lepidopteran Insects Associated with Agricultural Plants. 1999 CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK. The major component is listed first. % = Other less abundant pheromone component(s) (u) = further pheromone component(s) remain unidentified. For newly identified honeybee pheromone components, see Keeling et at. (2003), for new ant pheromone components see Baird (2001). 

If odor-evoked slow temporal patterns actually provide higher brain centers with information about the odor quality, identification and discrimination cannot be instantaneous as many of the temporal features in the response profiles appear late or even after offset of odor exposure. Honeybees need 500 ms for a response to (non-sexual pheromone) odors but at least 1 second of stimulation is required for a correct discrimination (J. Klein, unpublished, cited in Galizia el al., 2000a). Thus, it appears that time is an important factor in discrimination tasks involving non-pheromonal odors and the slow temporal patterns could theoretically contribute to an olfactory code. In contrast, these temporal patterns would be too slow to encode information about sexual pheromones. Male moths, for example, must be able to respond to rapid changes in stimulus intermittency when moving upwind in pheromone plumes in search of a calling female. 

In the study by Sachse et al. (1999) it was shown that 2-heptanone evoked a specific activity pattern that differed from the corresponding alcohol or aldehyde more than functional groups differed at other chain lengths. 2-heptanone functions as a repellent scent marker in honeybees (Giurfa and Nunez, 1992 Giurfa, 1993). The pheromonal function of this substance may have paved the way for the development of an alternative specialized pathway. It cannot be excluded that non-sexual pheromones are subject to parallel processing, i.e. a second specialized pathway similar to the sexual pheromone pathways may be present in areas of the ALs not accessible for recording. 

The GOBPs mainly found in the female moth antennae seem to carry odorant molecules found in plant volatiles (Steinbrecht et al., 1995). In the honeybee, Apis mellifera, ASP2 (AmelOBP2) expressed in the antennae of workers and drones can bind odorant molecules of floral scents such as 1,8-cineol, 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, 2-heptanone and isoamyl-acetate but do not bind pheromone components (Danty et al., 1997, 1999 Briand et al., 2001). 

Characterization of a chemosensory protein (ASP3c) from honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) as a brood pheromone carrier. Eur. J. Biochem., 269, 4586-4596. 

---