Nutrition affects survival in African honeybees exposed to interacting stressors

dc.contributor.authorArcher, C. Ruth
dc.contributor.authorPirk, Christian Walter Werner
dc.contributor.authorWright, Geraldine A.
dc.contributor.authorNicolson, Sue W.
dc.contributor.emailruth.archer@zoology.up.ac.zaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-09-30T07:59:15Z
dc.date.issued2014-08
dc.description.abstract1. Nutrition plays an important role in physiological stress resistance and by adjusting their intake of key nutrients, such as protein and carbohydrate, many animals can better resist stress. 2. Poor nutrition may contribute to the widespread and on-going declines of honeybee populations by increasing their vulnerability to abiotic (e.g. pesticides) and biotic (e.g. diseases) stressors. However, we do not know how nutrition affects stress resistance in social insects such as honeybees. 3. Here, we examined how exposure to the toxic secondary metabolite nicotine, a neurotoxin that shares structural similarities with the neonicotinoid pesticides, and low temperatures affected nutrient regulation in honeybees using the Geometric Framework of nutrition. 4. Groups of queenless, newly emerged worker bees were given diets containing specific ratios of protein and carbohydrate to determine, first, how toxin exposure and ambient temperature affected their nutrient intake and, secondly, how nutrition affected survival under stress. 5. We find that low temperatures and nicotine interacted to reduce survival in African honeybees that ate low protein, high carbohydrate diets. However, bees fed a high protein diet were better able to survive insult with these interacting stressors. 6. Although protein conferred a survival benefit in honeybees exposed to these dual stressors, when allowed to self-select their diet, caged workers did not shift their intake towards a higher protein food to improve their survival under these stressful conditions. 7. We discuss the possible constraints on nutrient regulation in honeybees and the role that diet could play in their decline.en_US
dc.description.librarianhb2014en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipBBSRC,NERC, the Wellcome Trust, Defra, and the Scottish Government under the Insect Pollinators Initiative Grant (BB/I000968/1).en_US
dc.description.urihttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435en_US
dc.identifier.citationArcher, CR, Pirk, CWW, Wright, GA & Nicolson, SW 2014, 'Nutrition affects survival in African honeybees exposed to interacting stressors', Functional Ecology, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 913-923.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0269-8463 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1365-2435 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1111/1365-2435.12226
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/42126
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherWileyen_US
dc.rights© 2013 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2013 British Ecological Society. The definite version is available at : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435.en_US
dc.subjectGeometric frameworken_US
dc.subjectHoneybee (Apis mellifera)en_US
dc.subjectNicotineen_US
dc.subjectNutritionen_US
dc.subjectPollinator declinesen_US
dc.subjectThermoregulationen_US
dc.titleNutrition affects survival in African honeybees exposed to interacting stressorsen_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

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