Yves Le Conte, INRA - SPE, Ecologie des Invertébrés, UMR 406 INRA/UAPV, Laboratoire Biologie et Protection de l'abeille, Site Agroparc, Domaine Saint Paul, AVIGNON Cedex 9, 84914, France
Chemical communication system utilized by social insects is compartmentalized into two different pheromones, releaser or primer. When many releaser pheromones are characterized in the animal kingdom, only a few primer pheromones have been identified, and most of them in the honeybee Apis mellifera. Recent studies on honeybee pheromones suggest that chemical communication in social insects is deeper and richer than we thought. To support this idea, I will present our findings on esters produced by the colony, and particularly ethyl oleate.
Ethyl oleate (EO) had been shown to be produced by the brood and to have releaser effects in the recognition of the larvae by adult bees. This chemical has also a primer effect elevating protein level in the hypopharyngeal glands of the workers (Mohammedi et al., 1996). It is released by the salivary glands of the larvae. Recent results on biosynthesis will be presented. More recently, EO was found to be biosynthesized and released by foragers and to inhibit the behavioural development of young bees (Leoncini et al., 2004). Finally, this compound is also found in important amounts on the queen (Keeling et al., 2001), and transmit via the queen retinue pheromone as a passenger pheromone. Then, the same pheromonal compound is produced by three different actors of the colony and trigger both releaser and primer effects.
I will show that pheromone signals in honeybees can be enhanced by complexity, synergy, and the context in which they are deployed, mediated through both temporal and spatial distribution.
References:
Mohammedi A. et al. 1996. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Sciences de la vie 769-772.
Leoncini I. et al. 2004. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 101:17559-17564.
Keeling C. I. et al. 2001. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 100:4486-4491.
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