Abstract
Honeybee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) colonies in temperate zones produce either summer bees, which have a lifespan of 15 to 48 days, or winter bees, which emerge in late summer and live up to 8 months. Winter bees develop unique physiological conditions characterized by changes in protein composition that appear to be major determinants of honeybee lifespan.
We analyzed winter honeybee worker hemolymph using a proteomic approach for the first time. Hemolymph collected from the dorsal vessel of winter honeybees using a glass capillary tube was analyzed using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by MALDI TOF/TOF protein identification.
Overall, 93 spots were assigned significance (P < 0.05). Many identified proteins corresponded well with extended lifespan.
Vitellogenin subunits (mainly ∼180 and ∼100 kDa) comprised the major portion of the proteins; however, vitellogenin dominance repressed the signals of the lower-abundance proteins. Future physiological studies related to overwintering bees, including health, immunity, longevity, nutrition, and/or colony losses, can benefit from these results.