Division of Labor among Worker Bees Is Associated with the Lipidomic Plasticity in Their Brains

Xiaojing Zhang, Yue Hao, Qingsheng Niu, Yanping Chen, Zhenyu Xia, Zihan Xie, Yazhou Zhao, Lingjie Kong and Wenjun Peng
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Xiaojing Zhang: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Yue Hao: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Qingsheng Niu: Key Laboratory for Bee Genetics and Breeding, Jilin Provincial Institute of Apicultural Sciences, Jilin 132108, China
Yanping Chen: Bee Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Zhenyu Xia: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Zihan Xie: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Yazhou Zhao: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Lingjie Kong: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Wenjun Peng: Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: The division of labor is a dominant characteristic of honeybees and is accompanied by behavioral specialization and cognitive enhancement. As the central nervous system to control the labor-specific behaviors of honeybee, the brain is richest in lipid in terms of both diversity and abundance. In this study, an in-depth LC-MS/MS-based lipidomic method was applied to systematically characterize the brain lipid compositions of worker bees with three labor stages: newly emerged bee (NEB), nurse bee (NB), and forager bee (FB). A total number of 337 lipid species that assigned to 20 lipid classes were analyzed. The association of the brain lipidomes with the division of labors was suggested by the results of both the unsupervised and supervised multivariate pattern recognition analysis. More than 68% of the identified lipid species were found to be significantly changed in at least one comparison between NEB, NB, and FB. A total of 81 lipid species were identified as the potential labor-featured molecules with VIP > 1 and p -adj < 0.05. The labor-featured lipids of FA(18:2), FA(18:3), FA(26:0), PC(18:0_18:3), PS(18:1_18:1), SM(d38:1), CoQ10, and CoQ9, as well as their interactions with 12 behavior-related genes, including AmEST-6 , AmFABP , AmE75 , AmDGAT2 , AmLSD1 , AmNPC1 , AmABCA1 , AmNMDAR1 , AmHTT , AmNOS , etc., were revealed by the further IPA analysis. These findings demonstrate for the first time that the brain lipidomes of worker bees are associated with the stable differences in their labors, which help understand the function of brain lipids on the labor-dependent behaviors of honeybees.

Keywords: honeybee; brain; lipidomic; division of labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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