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

这项研究项目是由科罗拉多大学的行为生物学家迈克尔·D·布赖德博士和科罗拉多州立大学的两位天然产物化学家路易斯·B·布约斯塔德和希巴德博士合作完成的。他们正在研究蜜蜂如何能够确定哪些蜜蜂属于它们的蜂群，哪些不属于它们的蜂群。这种现象是生物体广泛存在的区分亲属和非亲属的能力的一个例子，被称为“亲属识别”。从实践的角度来看，对蜜蜂亲缘关系识别系统的操纵在蜜蜂管理方面具有重要的潜在意义，特别是在随着美国“非洲”蜜蜂种群的扩大而做出适当的调整方面。养蜂人经常要求蜂群，这是一项昂贵且耗时的操作，但通常打算更换的蜂王不被工作人员接受。目前，这是一种可以容忍的低效。当控制蜂王在蜂群中的身份成为防止蜜蜂种群非洲化的关键方面时，成功的重新繁殖将是必要的。布赖德、布约斯塔德和希巴德博士希望开发出化学操作，这将极大地促进蜜蜂群体的重新形成。研究人员已经确定，蜂蜡是蜜蜂识别化学物质的主要来源。他们已经对蜡进行了分析，并准确地确定了可能对识别起作用的化合物。他们现在将(1)识别更多的这些化学物质，(2)确定这些化合物是如何用作识别线索的，以及(3)使用这些信息来确定工蚁和蜂王是如何被自然蜂群识别的。这项工作将深入了解亲缘识别这一基本的生物学机制是如何工作的，并可能在蜜蜂管理方面产生具有实际意义的结果。

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.