Muscle biochemistry and the ontogeny of flight capacity during behavioral development in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

Abstract

A fundamental issue in physiology and behavior is understanding the functional and genetic mechanisms that underlie major behavioral shifts in organisms as they adopt new environments or life history tactics. Such transitions are common in nature and include the age-related switch from nest/hive work to foraging in social insects such as honey bees (Apis mellifera). Because of their experimental tractability, recently sequenced genome and well understood biology, honey bees are an ideal model system for integrating molecular, genetic, physiological and sociobiological perspectives to advance understanding of behavioral and life history transitions. When honey bees (Apis mellifera) transition from hive work to foraging, their flight muscles undergo changes that allow these insects to attain the highest rates of flight muscle metabolism and power output ever recorded in the animal kingdom. Here, we review research to date showing that honey bee flight muscles undergo significant changes in biochemistry and gene expression and that these changes accompany a significant increase in the capacity to generate metabolic and aerodynamic power during flight. It is likely that changes in muscle gene expression, biochemistry, metabolism and functional capacity may be driven primarily by behavior as opposed to age, as is the case for changes in honey bee brains.