Forager/Nurse bees epigenetics

[alanf]

Report in the Guardian today of work on the epigenetics of bees. There is evidence for the reversibility of the transition from nurse bee to forager and the reverse is associated with epigenetic tags. Claimed to be the first clear association of behaviour and reversible epigenetics.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/16/bee-study-behaviour

The link on the page doesn't seem to work but the paper is here (subscription).
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.3218.html

Interesting background on how the division of labour is controlled. Most practical implication is probably that is a chemical trace of foragers becoming nurse bees again. The idea that it may take "a few weeks" to rebalance after isolating a group of foragers might suggest it's rare in normal processes but happens under extreme stimulus.

 

[Dunbarrover]

Tried to upload link myself this morning but wouldn't allow me to do it.

I am wondering how this relates to activity during swarming.

We are told in the text books that a swarm is made up of foraging bees, i.e. older bees. Younger bees act a nurse bees, wax makers etc until the point at which they become foragers and start to leave the hive.

But the first thing a swarm will do is make wax to draw comb. So do the older foragers revert back to a younger state ( the implication in the article is that this would be possible) or are swarms made up of a variety of bees of differing ages, for many this would be their first flight out of the hive?

Just finishing my third year and it is getting more interesting the more I discover

 

[drstitson]

Dunbarrover - think about it. a natural swarm does not return to it's old location. the bees in it don't need to orientate as this is only necessary for foragers.

and in an artificial swarm? your flyers return home leaving youngish bees with HM.

AFAIK all bees can fly. but not all bees are orientated.

 

[Dunbarrover]

Thanks for the reply, but my question wasn't about foragers orienting or returning to the hive. It was about how, in a natural swarm, the bees that leave have the ability to make wax.

We are told that the glands are switched on in bees at certain points, i.e. by day five they can secrete brood food, by ten this action stops and they begin to secrete wax, by twenty one days they become full time foragers.

If a natural swarm is made up only of older foragers, how can they then start secreting wax?

Or is it the case that a swarm is made up of bees of various ages?

 

[oliver90owner]

If a natural swarm is made up only of older foragers, how can they then start secreting wax?

Natural swarms are made up of flying bees of the range of ages - about 4 days or older.

 

[For want of a better word]

There goes the journalist chance of claiming bee therapy in it many guises as an anti ageing product!

 

[masterBK]

While bees of all ages are indeed present in a natural swarm, the majority of them are relatively young. So the age structure of a natural swarm is very different from that produced carrying out a Pagden artificial swarm which consists of mainly foragers. It takes time to switch the wax glands on in older workers which is why it is not a good idea to give an artificial swarm just foundation but makes perfect sense to give a natural swarm frames of foundation to draw.