It is generally accepted that young worker bees (Apis mellifera L.) are highly attracted to queen mandibular pheromone (QMP). Our results challenge this widely held view. We have found that unless young workers are exposed to QMP early in adult life, they, like foragers, avoid contact with this pheromone. Our data indicate that responses to QMP are regulated peripherally, at the level of the antennal sensory neurons, and that a window of opportunity exists in which QMP can alter a young bee's response to this critically important pheromone. Exposing young bees to QMP from the time of adult emergence reduces expression in the antennae of the D1-like dopamine receptor gene, Amdop1. Levels of Amdop3 transcript, on the other hand, and of the octopamine receptor gene Amoa1, are significantly higher in the antennae of bees strongly attracted to QMP than in bees showing no attraction to this pheromone. A decline in QMP attraction with age is accompanied by a fall in expression in worker antennae of the D2-like dopamine receptor, AmDOP3, a receptor that is selectively activated by QMP. Taken together, our findings suggest that QMP's actions peripherally not only suppress avoidance behavior, but also enhance attraction to QMP, thereby facilitating attendance of the queen.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 October 2023.
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Altmetric has tracked 34,360,889 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 67th percentile.
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