Nestmate Recognition in Honey Bees: Collaborative Research on Behavioral and Chemical Aspects

这项研究项目是由行为生物学家迈克尔·D·Breed博士和两位天然产物化学家Louis B.科罗拉多州立大学的比约斯塔德和希巴德。 他们正在研究蜜蜂如何能够确定哪些蜜蜂属于他们的群体，哪些不属于。 这种现象是生物体区分亲属和非亲属的广泛能力的一个例子，被称为“亲属识别”。从实践的角度来看，蜜蜂亲属识别系统的操作在蜜蜂的管理中具有很大的潜在重要性，特别是在“非洲”蜜蜂种群在美国扩大时进行适当的调整。 目前，这是一个可以容忍的低效率。 当控制殖民地中蜂王的身份成为防止蜜蜂种群非洲化的一个关键方面时，成功的重新羽化将是必要的。 Breed，Bjostad和Hibbard博士希望开发出化学操作，这将大大促进蜜蜂群体的重新繁殖。 研究人员已经确定，蜂巢蜡是蜜蜂识别化学物质的主要来源。 他们分析了蜡，并确定了可能在识别中起作用的化学化合物。 他们现在将（1）识别更多的这些化学物质，（2）确定这些化合物如何被用作识别线索，以及（3）使用这些信息来确定工蚁和蚁后如何被自然群体识别。 这项工作将深入了解一个基本的生物学机制，亲属识别，工程，也可能产生的结果，在蜜蜂的管理具有实际意义。

This research project is a collaborative effort by a behavioral biologist, Dr. Michael D. Breed, of the University of Colorado, and two natural-products chemists, Drs. Louis B. Bjostad and Hibbard of Colorado State University. They are investigating how honey bees are able to determine which bees belong in their colony and which do not. This phenomenon is an example of the widespread ability of organisms to discriminate relatives from non-relatives and is termed "kin recognition." From a practical standpoint, the manipulation of the honey-bee kin-recognition system has great potential importance in the management of honey bees and, particularly, in making appropriate adjustments as the "African" honey bee population expands in the U.S. Beekeepers routinely requeen colonies, an expensive and time-consuming operation, yet often the intended replacement queen is not accepted by the workers. Currently this is a tolerable inefficiency. When controlling the identity of the queen in the colony becomes a critical aspect of preventing Africanization of bee stocks, successful requeening will be a necessity. Drs. Breed, Bjostad, and Hibbard expect to develop chemical manipulations that will greatly facilitate requeening of honey bee colonies. The researchers have determined that the comb wax is a primary source of recognition chemicals in the honey bee. They have analyzed the wax and have pinpointed chemical compounds that may have a role in recognition. They now will (1) identify more of these chemicals, (2) determine how these compounds are used as recognition cues, and (3) use this information to determine how workers and queens are recognized by natural colonies. This work will give insight into how a fundamental biological mechanism, kin recognition, works, and may also yield results of practical significance in the management of honey bees.