This thesis examines three factors that may influence the change in protein
content and size of the brood food glands in honey bees. Effects on the mandibular
gland, involved in the production of brood food and in royal jelly, have not been
examined in relation to primer pheromones while effects on the hypopharyngeal glands,
also involved in the production of brood food, have not been examined in relation to
queen mandibular pheromone. This thesis provides preliminary insight into how these
pheromones affect the extractable protein content of brood food glands.
The first study in this thesis assessed the effects of brood pheromone (BP), queen
mandibular pheromone (QMP), and pollen presence on the protein content of
hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of the honey bee. In this study, newly emerged
bees were caged for 12 days in one of eight treatments: Queenless state: 1) control (no
pollen + no pheromone), 2) pollen, 3) BP, 4) BP + pollen; Queenright state: 1) QMP, 2)
QMP + pollen, 3) BP + QMP, 4) BP + QMP + pollen. This study indicated that
regardless of pheromone treatment, the most influential factor on gland protein content
and size was pollen. The second experiment examined effects of varying pollen dilution on
hypopharyngeal and mandibular gland protein content, bee mass, and lipid content of the
honey bee. In this experiment, newly emerged bees were caged for 7 days and fed one
of five treatments: pollen, 1:1 pollen: cellulose (vol:vol), 1:2 pollen: cellulose (vol:vol);
1:3 pollen: cellulose (vol:vol), and cellulose. This study indicated that bees on the
pollen diet were significantly greater than all other diluted diets in measurements of
hypopharyngeal gland protein content, lipid content, and mass with significantly less
consumption. However, mandibular gland protein content of bees on the pollen diet was
significantly greater only from pure cellulose.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3167 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Peters, Lizette Alice |
| Contributors | Pankiw, Tanya |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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