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Insects
Special Issues
Honey Bee Nutrition
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Honey Bee Nutrition

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Physiology, Reproduction and Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 14113

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ramesh Sagili

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Agricultural & Life Sciences 4017, 2750 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
Interests: honey bee nutrition; honey bee health; honey bee pollination
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Adam G. Dolezal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Interests: honey bee nutrition; physiology; honey bee health
Dr. Vanessa Corby-Harris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
USDA-ARS, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA
Interests: honey bee nutrition; honey bee health
Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Agricultural & Life Sciences 4017, 2750 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
Interests: honey bee nutrition; health; physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Poor nutrition is one of the major factors attributed to honey bee colony declines over the past decade. Habitat loss, intensive agriculture, monocultures, and changes in plant flowering phenology are most likely contributors to poor nutrition. Honey bee nutrition plays a vital role in mitigating the effects of both biotic and abiotic stressors on bees. Currently, there is huge gap in knowledge pertaining to honey bee nutrition. Given the importance of nutrition, it is imperative to understand honey bee nutrition holistically. In this Special Issue, we aim to publish original research articles pertaining to honey bee nutrition.

Dr. Ramesh Sagili
Dr. Adam G. Dolezal
Dr. Vanessa Corby-Harris
Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • honey bee nutrition
  • pollinators
  • stressors
  • pollinators habitat

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1064 KiB  
Article
The Importance of Time and Place: Nutrient Composition and Utilization of Seasonal Pollens by European Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)
by Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, Vanessa Corby-Harris, Mark Carroll, Amy L. Toth, Stephanie Gage, Emily Watkins deJong, Henry Graham, Mona Chambers, Charlotte Meador and Bethany Obernesser
Insects 2021, 12(3), 235; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects12030235 - 10 Mar 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3561
Abstract
Honey bee colonies have a yearly cycle that is supported nutritionally by the seasonal progression of flowering plants. In the spring, colonies grow by rearing brood, but in the fall, brood rearing declines in preparation for overwintering. Depending on where colonies are located, [...] Read more.
Honey bee colonies have a yearly cycle that is supported nutritionally by the seasonal progression of flowering plants. In the spring, colonies grow by rearing brood, but in the fall, brood rearing declines in preparation for overwintering. Depending on where colonies are located, the yearly cycle can differ especially in overwintering activities. In temperate climates of Europe and North America, colonies reduce or end brood rearing in the fall while in warmer climates bees can rear brood and forage throughout the year. To test the hypothesis that nutrients available in seasonal pollens and honey bee responses to them can differ we analyzed pollen in the spring and fall collected by colonies in environments where brood rearing either stops in the fall (Iowa) or continues through the winter (Arizona). We fed both types of pollen to worker offspring of queens that emerged and open mated in each type of environment. We measured physiological responses to test if they differed depending on the location and season when the pollen was collected and the queen line of the workers that consumed it. Specifically, we measured pollen and protein consumption, gene expression levels (hex 70, hex 110, and vg) and hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) development. We found differences in macronutrient content and amino and fatty acids between spring and fall pollens from the same location and differences in nutrient content between locations during the same season. We also detected queen type and seasonal effects in HPG size and differences in gene expression between bees consuming spring vs. fall pollen with larger HPG and higher gene expression levels in those consuming spring pollen. The effects might have emerged from the seasonal differences in nutritional content of the pollens and genetic factors associated with the queen lines we used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Honey Bee Nutrition)
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13 pages, 2492 KiB  
Article
Changes in Honey Bee Head Proteome in Response to Dietary 24-Methylenecholesterol
by Priyadarshini Chakrabarti and Ramesh R. Sagili
Insects 2020, 11(11), 743; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects11110743 - 29 Oct 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3258
Abstract
Phytosterols are important micronutrients that are precursors of important molting hormones and help maintain cellular membrane integrity in insects including bees. Previous research has shown that 24-methylenecholesterol is a key phytosterol that enhances honey bee longevity and improves nurse bee physiology. Nurse bees [...] Read more.
Phytosterols are important micronutrients that are precursors of important molting hormones and help maintain cellular membrane integrity in insects including bees. Previous research has shown that 24-methylenecholesterol is a key phytosterol that enhances honey bee longevity and improves nurse bee physiology. Nurse bees have the ability to selectively transfer this sterol to developing larvae through brood food. This study examines the physiological impacts of 24-methylenecholesterol on nurse bees, by analyzing the protein profiles of nurse bee heads upon dietary sterol manipulation. Dietary experimental groups consisting of newly emerged honey bees were provided with varying concentrations of 24-methylenecholesterol for three weeks. At the end of the study, honey bees were collected and proteomic analysis was performed on honey bee heads. A total of 1715 proteins were identified across experimental groups. The mean relative abundances of nutritional marker proteins (viz. major royal jelly proteins 1, 4, 5, 7) were higher in experimental groups supplemented with higher dietary sterol concentrations, when compared with the control dietary group. The mean relative abundances of important enzymatic proteins (aminopeptidase and calcium-transporting ATPase) were higher in control groups, whereas mean relative abundances of oxysterol-binding protein and fatty acid-binding protein were higher in higher dietary sterol groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Honey Bee Nutrition)
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18 pages, 693 KiB  
Article
Ameliorative Effects of Phytochemical Ingestion on Viral Infection in Honey Bees
by Edward M. Hsieh, May R. Berenbaum and Adam G. Dolezal
Insects 2020, 11(10), 698; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects11100698 - 13 Oct 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3108
Abstract
Honey bee viruses are capable of causing a wide variety of devastating effects, but effective treatments have yet to be discovered. Phytochemicals represent a broad range of substances that honey bees frequently encounter and consume, many of which have been shown to improve [...] Read more.
Honey bee viruses are capable of causing a wide variety of devastating effects, but effective treatments have yet to be discovered. Phytochemicals represent a broad range of substances that honey bees frequently encounter and consume, many of which have been shown to improve honey bee health. However, their effect on bee viruses is largely unknown. Here, we tested the therapeutic effectiveness of carvacrol, thymol, p-coumaric acid, quercetin, and caffeine on viral infection by measuring their ability to improve survivorship in honey bees inoculated with Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) using high-throughput cage bioassays. Among these candidates, caffeine was the only phytochemical capable of significantly improving survivorship, with initial screening showing that naturally occurring concentrations of caffeine (25 ppm) were sufficient to produce an ameliorative effect on IAPV infection. Consequently, we measured the scope of caffeine effectiveness in bees inoculated and uninoculated with IAPV by performing the same type of high-throughput bioassay across a wider range of caffeine concentrations. Our results indicate that caffeine may provide benefits that scale with concentration, though the exact mechanism by which caffeine ingestion improves survivorship remains uncertain. Caffeine therefore has the potential to act as an accessible and inexpensive method of treating viral infections, while also serving as a tool to further understanding of honey bee–virus interactions at a physiological and molecular level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Honey Bee Nutrition)
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10 pages, 456 KiB  
Article
Flowers in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Pollinator Plantings and the Upper Midwest Agricultural Landscape Supporting Honey Bees
by Harper McMinn-Sauder, Rodney Richardson, Tyler Eaton, Mike Smith and Reed Johnson
Insects 2020, 11(7), 405; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects11070405 - 30 Jun 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3271
Abstract
A present goal of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is to manage land in agricultural landscapes to increase pollinator abundance and diversity. CP42, or the pollinator seed mix, is planted and managed to support foraging pollinators with blooming flowers present at all points [...] Read more.
A present goal of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is to manage land in agricultural landscapes to increase pollinator abundance and diversity. CP42, or the pollinator seed mix, is planted and managed to support foraging pollinators with blooming flowers present at all points in the foraging season. This high-quality habitat provides an excellent opportunity to study honey bee nutrition and determine whether honey bees located near CRP sites use known resources included in planting seed mixes. This study aims to highlight the primary sources of honey bee forage in the northern Midwest as well as to assess honey bee utilization of the floral resources provided by the pollinator seed mix used for CRP plantings. We received pollen samples collected using pollen traps by beekeepers in Ohio, South Dakota, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Metabarcoding methods were used to identify and quantify pollen collected at different points in the season. The results indicate that honey bees frequently used major mass flowering resources such as Glycine, Trifolium, and Symphiotrichum throughout the season. In addition, flowers included in the CRP pollinator seed mix were used modestly. These results have implications for pollinator seed mix design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Honey Bee Nutrition)
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