title: Food to some, poison to others - honeybee royal jelly and its growth inhibiting effect on European Foulbrood bacteria.
abstract: Honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera) serve as attractive hosts for a variety of pathogens providing optimal temperatures, humidity, and an abundance of food. Thus, honeybees have to deal with pathogens throughout their lives and, even as larvae they are affected by severe brood diseases like the European Foulbrood caused by Melissococcus plutonius. Accordingly, it is highly adaptive that larval food jelly contains antibiotic compounds. However, although food jelly is primarily consumed by bee larvae, studies investigating the antibiotic effects of this jelly have largely concentrated on bacterial human diseases. In this study, we show that royal jelly fed to queen larvae and added to the jelly of drone and worker larvae, inhibits not only the growth of European Foulbrood-associated bacteria but also its causative agent M. plutonius. This effect is shown to be caused by the main protein (major royal jelly protein 1) of royal jelly.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Zoologie - Molekulare Ökologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Vezeteu
authors.affiliation: Departamentul de Apiculturǎ şi Sericiculturǎ, Facultatea de Zootehnie şi Biotehnologii, Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicinǎ Veterinarǎ, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Otilia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bobiş
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Zoologie - Molekulare Ökologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Robin F A
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Moritz
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Zoologie - Molekulare Ökologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buttstedt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001516:Bees / Q000378:metabolism; D056569:Enterococcaceae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D000099219:Royal Jelly
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D005227:Fatty Acids; D006023:Glycoproteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D000099219:Royal Jelly; C559157:MRJP1 protein, Apis mellifera
keywords: 
  Apis
  ; 
  MRJP
  ; 
  Melissococcus
  ; antibiotic; immunity