title: Differential proteomics in dequeened honeybee colonies reveals lower viral load in hemolymph of fertile worker bees.
abstract: The eusocial societies of honeybees, where the queen is the only fertile female among tens of thousands sterile worker bees, have intrigued scientists for centuries. The proximate factors, which cause the inhibition of worker bee ovaries, remain largely unknown; as are the factors which cause the activation of worker ovaries upon the loss of queen and brood in the colony. In an attempt to reveal key players in the regulatory network, we made a proteomic comparison of hemolymph profiles of workers with completely activated ovaries vs. rudimentary ovaries. An unexpected finding of this study is the correlation between age matched worker sterility and the enrichment of Picorna-like virus proteins. Fertile workers, on the other hand, show the upregulation of potential components of the immune system. It remains to be investigated whether viral infections contribute to worker sterility directly or are the result of a weaker immune system of sterile workers.
authors.affiliation: Research Group of Functional Genomics and Proteomics, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. dries.cardoen@bio.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Dries
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cardoen
authors.forename: Ulrich R
authors.initials: UR
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Vaerenbergh
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boerjan
authors.forename: Dirk C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: de Graaf
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wenseleers
authors.forename: Liliane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schoofs
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verleyen
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology*; D015180:Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006458:Hemolymph / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D040901:Proteomics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D015854:Up-Regulation