Abstract:

【Objective】 The study is to investigate the proteome profile of the hypopharyngeal gland (HG) of high royal jelly producing bees (A. m. ligustica) and native Italian bees (A. m. ligustica) on day 1, day 3 and day 6. 【Method】 Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used in this experiment and parts of proteins were identified by comparison of those proteins already identified in the proteome complement of the HG and royal jelly. 【Result】 The results showed that 210, 192 and 230 proteins were detected in the proteome profile of high royal jelly producing bees on day 1, day 3 and day 6, respectively, which is significantly higher than those detected in native Italian bees, 169, 188 and 212, correspondingly. While 6-day-old HG expressed the significant highest number of proteins in two strains (P＜0.05). This indicates the HG of high royal jelly producing bees express more active than that of native Italian bees and day 6 is the most active expressional stage. For high royal jelly producing bees, 119 proteins presented on all images of days 1, 3, and 6, among which 21 proteins were remarkably up-expressed and 14 were significantly down-expressed along with the development of the HG. For the native Italian bees, 107 proteins were consistently resolved to the 3 images, 15 proteins showed significant up-expression and 19 down-expressed significantly (P＜0.05). Proteins well resolved to the images on day 1, day 3 and day 6 of high royal jelly producing bees and native Italian bees were 145, 138 and 175, respectively. Among them, 28, 31, 44 proteins showed a significant higher expression in high royal jelly producing bees than those of native Italian bees, while 14, 19, 25 proteins expressed significant higher in native Italian bees than those of high royal jelly producing bee (P＜0.05). Proteins specific expressed in the HG of high royal jelly producing bees and native Italian bees were 65, 54, 55 and 24, 50, 37 on day 1, day 3 and day 6, respectively. By comparison of already identified proteins from HG and royal jelly, major royal jelly proteins could be detected in the protein profile of the two honey bee strains starting from day 3. 【Conclusion】 The HG of high royal jelly producing bees express more active than that of Italian bees during 6 days development after eclosion and it has the most expressional activity on day 6. The proteins well resolved to all images are the housekeeping proteins which are indispensable for the development of the HG, but marked difference exists in their expression pattern. The proteins specific expressed on different days indicate that different developing stage of HG need specific proteins to regulate its growth. The 3-day-old HG begins to secret royal jelly.

Key words: Key words: high royal jelly producing bee, native Italian bee, hypopharyngeal gland, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, proteome