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Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring

Maternal effects are an evolutionary strategy used to improve offspring quality. In an example of maternal effects in honey bees (Apis mellifera), mother queens produce larger eggs in queen cells than in worker cells in order to breed better daughter queens. In our current study, morphological index...

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Autores principales: Yu, Longtao, He, Xujiang, Shi, Xinxin, Yan, Weiyu, Wu, Xiaobo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10167042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37181751
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1156923
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author Yu, Longtao
He, Xujiang
Shi, Xinxin
Yan, Weiyu
Wu, Xiaobo
author_facet Yu, Longtao
He, Xujiang
Shi, Xinxin
Yan, Weiyu
Wu, Xiaobo
author_sort Yu, Longtao
collection PubMed
description Maternal effects are an evolutionary strategy used to improve offspring quality. In an example of maternal effects in honey bees (Apis mellifera), mother queens produce larger eggs in queen cells than in worker cells in order to breed better daughter queens. In our current study, morphological indexes, reproductive tissues, and the egg-laying ability of newly reared queens reared with eggs laid in queen cells (QE), eggs laid in worker cells (WE), and 2-day-old larvae in worker cells (2L) were evaluated. In addition, morphological indexes of offspring queens and working performance of offspring workers were examined. The thorax weight, number of ovarioles, egg length, and number of laid eggs and capped broods of QE were significantly higher than those of WE and 2L, indicating that the reproductive capacity of QE group was better than that of other groups. Furthermore, offspring queens from QE had larger thorax weights and sizes than those from the other two groups. Offspring worker bees from QE also had larger body sizes and greater pollen-collecting and royal jelly-producing abilities than those of other two groups. These results demonstrate that honey bees display profound maternal effects on queen quality that can be transmitted across generations. These findings provide a basis for improving queen quality, with implications in apicultural and agricultural production.
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spelling pubmed-101670422023-05-10 Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring Yu, Longtao He, Xujiang Shi, Xinxin Yan, Weiyu Wu, Xiaobo Front Cell Dev Biol Cell and Developmental Biology Maternal effects are an evolutionary strategy used to improve offspring quality. In an example of maternal effects in honey bees (Apis mellifera), mother queens produce larger eggs in queen cells than in worker cells in order to breed better daughter queens. In our current study, morphological indexes, reproductive tissues, and the egg-laying ability of newly reared queens reared with eggs laid in queen cells (QE), eggs laid in worker cells (WE), and 2-day-old larvae in worker cells (2L) were evaluated. In addition, morphological indexes of offspring queens and working performance of offspring workers were examined. The thorax weight, number of ovarioles, egg length, and number of laid eggs and capped broods of QE were significantly higher than those of WE and 2L, indicating that the reproductive capacity of QE group was better than that of other groups. Furthermore, offspring queens from QE had larger thorax weights and sizes than those from the other two groups. Offspring worker bees from QE also had larger body sizes and greater pollen-collecting and royal jelly-producing abilities than those of other two groups. These results demonstrate that honey bees display profound maternal effects on queen quality that can be transmitted across generations. These findings provide a basis for improving queen quality, with implications in apicultural and agricultural production. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-04-25 /pmc/articles/PMC10167042/ /pubmed/37181751 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1156923 Text en Copyright © 2023 Yu, He, Shi, Yan and Wu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Cell and Developmental Biology
Yu, Longtao
He, Xujiang
Shi, Xinxin
Yan, Weiyu
Wu, Xiaobo
Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title_full Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title_fullStr Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title_full_unstemmed Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title_short Honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
title_sort honey bee maternal effects improve worker performance and reproductive ability in offspring
topic Cell and Developmental Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10167042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37181751
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1156923
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