The absence of food in bee larvae can accelerate metamorphosis and make them transition to an adult state more quickly with worse consequences for their future health, according to new research.
A study published this Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States analyzes how the lack of food determines the moment at which a bee begins its metamorphosis, which will influence its body size as an adult, its physical condition, flight capacity and fecundity.
The regulation of metamorphosis has been studied in depth in insects because it is essential to know what the future of the species will be, but until now it has been difficult to determine what physiological change activates metamorphosis.
This study has determined that a critical change in weight in the species is essential to activate this process towards maturity.
To do this, researchers from Washington State University (United States) did some laboratory experiments with larvae of the bee ‘Megachile rotundata’, a European species introduced to other regions of the world today, which is characterized by cutting alfalfa leaves.
Their objective was to determine what signal activated metamorphosis in ‘Megachile rotundata’ and to characterize the physiological mechanisms that initiated this signal.
To do this, they fed some of the larvae and stopped providing food to others to see what would happen.
The researchers measured the onset of metamorphosis in each, as well as the levels of juvenile hormone and the genetic transcripts associated with this process.
In this way, they discovered that fasting due to food withdrawal triggered a more rapid onset of metamorphosis in this species.
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By not receiving food, larvae decreased levels of juvenile hormone and increased levels of transcripts related to metamorphosis signals toward the transformation from larva to pupa (and then to adult).
The absence of food is an ecologically relevant signal for the larvae of these bees in natural environments, since they depend on the food provided by the mother, because they are incapable of searching for food on their own.
According to the authors, the findings expand existing understanding of the relationship between metamorphosis and the life cycle of bees.
With information from EFE
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