Abstract:

【Objective】 The objective of this study is to compare the protein complements of the high producing royal jelly bees (Apis mellifera L.) with the native Italian bees (Apis mellifera L.) during the three days of egg development of the drone bees. 【Method】 The pI, molecular weight, expression of the dedected protein were analyzed by the profile of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) of the drone at different egg development phases from the two bee strains. 【Result】 332, 377 and 339 proteins were detected in the proteome profile of high royal jelly producing drone eggs on day 1, day 2 and day 3, respectively, which was significantly higher than those detected in native Italian drones, 283, 305 and 293 (P＜0.05), accordingly. Two hundred and fifty-four proteins were resolved at all the images within two bee strains. Meanwhile, 274, 298, 285 proteins presented on day 1, day 2 and day 3 between the two bee strains, respectively. Among them 54, 42 and 47 proteins in high royal jelly producing bees significant higher than those of native Italian bees in expressional volume (P＜0.05), respectively; while 18, 75, 61 proteins showed a reverse relations (P＜0.05). Furthermore, 58, 79, 54 proteins expressed specifically in high production royal jelly bees and 9, 7, 8 in native Italian bees. 【Conclusion】 Significant differences had been found in the drone egg proteome profile between the high royal jelly producing bees and the native Italian bees, while both the two strains express the most active at 2-day-old eggs; The protein expressed at all images suggests that it should be indispensable for drone egg development, but their expression pattern is different within two bee species. The proteins expressed at a specific egg time-piont suggest that different developmental stages need specific proteins to be involved in; A further research will be needed to identify the function of the detected proteins and to investigate whether the specific proteins are related to high royal jelly production.

Key words: high royal jelly producing bee(Apis mellifera L.)')">high royal jelly producing bee(Apis mellifera L.), native Italian bee(Apis mellifera L.), drone’s egg, two- dimensional gel electrophoresis, proteome