Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Remodeling of Cellular Respiration and Insulin Signaling Are Part of a Shared Stress Response in Divergent Bee Species. |
| Authors: |
Rondeau, Nicole C.1 (AUTHOR), Raup-Collado, Joanna2 (AUTHOR), Kogan, Helen V.1,3 (AUTHOR), Cho, Rachel1 (AUTHOR), Lovinger, Natalie1,2 (AUTHOR), Wague, Fatoumata1,3 (AUTHOR), Lopatkin, Allison J.3 (AUTHOR), Texeira, Noelle G.1 (AUTHOR), Flores, Melissa E.1 (AUTHOR), Rovnyak, David2 (AUTHOR), Snow, Jonathan W.1 (AUTHOR) jsnow@barnard.edu |
| Source: |
Insects (2075-4450). Mar2025, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p300. 21p. |
| Subject Terms: |
*HONEYBEES, *INSECT hormones, *GENE expression, *AGRICULTURE, *CELL respiration |
| Abstract: |
Simple Summary: Honey bees are critical pollinators in agriculture. They have been experiencing increased mortality in the last few decades due to multiple stressors, ranging from decreased diversity of resources for foraging resulting in nutritional stress to increased pathogenicity of viruses. However, we do not yet fully understand how these stressors interact and impact honey bee health, nor how honey bees respond to these complex and often intertwined challenges. We also lack reliable biomarkers that detect cellular stress or dysfunction in honey bees at the individual or colony levels. Using real-world and model abiotic stressors, we quantified changes in the expression of a specific gene that appears to function as a metabolic switch in response to stress in eusocial honey bees. Changes in the expression of this and other metabolic genes correlated with changes in metabolites, guiding a model in which varied abiotic challenges lead to alterations in central metabolism potentially orchestrated by the insect hormone insulin-like peptide. We further found that some of these changes are found in the solitary alfalfa leafcutting bee, suggesting that bees with divergent life histories may similarly rely on cellular strategies that alter metabolism in response to stress. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is of paramount importance to human activities through the pollination services they provide in agricultural settings. Honey bee colonies in the United States have suffered from an increased rate of annual die-off in recent years, stemming from a complex set of interacting stressors that remain poorly described. Defining the cellular responses that are perturbed by divergent stressors represents a key step in understanding these synergies. We found that multiple model stressors induce upregulated expression of the lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh) gene in the midgut of the eusocial honey bee and that the Ldh gene family is expanded in diverse bee species. Alterations in Ldh expression were concomitant with changes in the expression of other genes involved in cellular respiration and genes encoding insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway components. Additionally, changes in metabolites in the midgut after stress, including increased levels of lactate, linked metabolic changes with the observed changes in gene expression. Select transcriptional changes in response to stress were similarly observed in the solitary alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata). Thus, increased Ldh expression may be part of a core stress response remodeling cellular respiration and insulin signaling. These findings suggest that a conserved cellular response that regulates metabolic demands under diverse stressful conditions may play a protective role in bees regardless of life history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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