Hemolymph juvenile hormone titers in worker honey bees under normal and preswarming conditions

Liquid chromatography coupled to ion trap-tandem mass spectrometry to evaluate juvenile hormone III levels in bee hemolymph from Nosema spp. infected colonies

It has been described a fast, simple and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to measure juvenile hormone III (JH III), which was used to study of the effects of Nosema spp. infection on JH III levels in bee hemolymph. Honey bee hemolymph was extracted by centrifugation and mixed with a solution of phenylthiourea in methanol. This mixture was then centrifuged and the supernatant removed and evaporated to dryness. The residue was reconstituted in methanol containing the internal standard (methoprene) and injected onto an LC-MS/MS (ion-trap) system coupled to electrospray ionization (ESI) in positive mode. Chromatography was performed on a Synergi Hydro-RP column (4 μm, 30 mm × 4.60 mm i.d.) using a mobile phase of 20 mM ammonium formate and methanol in binary gradient elution mode. The method was fully validated and it was found to be selective, linear from 15 to 14,562 pg/μL, precise and accurate, with %RSD values below 5%. The limits of detection and quantification were: LOD, 6 pg/μL; LOQ, 15 pg/μL. Finally, the proposed LC-MS/MS method was used to analyze JH III levels in the hemolymph of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera iberiensis) experimentally infected with different Nosema spp. (Nosema apis, Spanish and Dutch Nosema ceranae strains). The highest concentrations of JH III were detected in hemolymph from bees infected with Spanish N. ceranae.

Honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) drone embryo proteomes

Little attention has been paid to the drone honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) which is a haploid individual carrying only the set of alleles that it inherits from its mother. Molecular mechanisms underlying drone embryogenesis are poorly understood. This study evaluated protein expression profiles of drone embryogenesis at embryonic ages of 24, 48 and 72h. More than 100 reproducible proteins were analyzed by mass spectrometry on 2D electrophoresis gels. Sixty-two proteins were significantly changed at the selected three experimental age points. Expression of the metabolic energy requirement-related protein peaked at the embryonic age of 48h, whereas development and metabolizing amino acid-related proteins expressed optimally at 72h. Cytoskeleton, protein folding and antioxidant-related proteins were highly expressed at 48 and 72h. Protein networks of the identified proteins were constructed and protein expressions were validated at the transcription level. This first proteomic study of drone embryogenesis in the honeybee may provide geneticists an exact timetable and candidate protein outline for further manipulations of drone stem cells.