Pollen diet mediates how pesticide exposure impacts brain gene expression in nest-founding bumble bee queens

A primary goal in biology is to understand the effects of multiple, interacting environmental stressors on organisms. Wild and domesticated bees are exposed to a wide variety of interacting biotic and abiotic stressors, with widespread declines in floral resources and agrochemical exposure being two of the most important. In this study, we used examinations of brain gene expression to explore the sublethal consequences of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure and pollen diet composition in nest-founding bumble bee queens. We demonstrate for the first time that pollen diet composition can influence the strength of bumble bee queen responses to pesticide exposure at the molecular level. Specifically, one pollen mixture in our study appeared to buffer bumble bee queens entirely against the effects of pesticide exposure, with respect to brain gene expression. Additionally, we detected unique effects of pollen diet and sustained (versus more temporary) pesticide exposure on queen gene expression....

生物学的一个核心目标是理解多种相互作用的环境胁迫因子（environmental stressors）对生物体的影响。野生与家养蜜蜂暴露于多种相互作用的生物胁迫因子（biotic stressors）和非生物胁迫因子（abiotic stressors）中，其中花资源（floral resources）的广泛减少与农药暴露（agrochemical exposure）是最重要的两个因素。本研究通过分析脑基因表达（brain gene expression），探究了新烟碱类农药（neonicotinoid pesticide）暴露与花粉饮食组成（pollen diet composition）对筑巢熊蜂蜂王（nest-founding bumble bee queens）的亚致死效应（sublethal consequences）。我们首次证实，花粉饮食组成可在分子水平上影响熊蜂蜂王对农药暴露的响应强度。具体而言，本研究中的一种花粉混合物在脑基因表达层面似乎能完全缓冲熊蜂蜂王免受农药暴露的影响。此外，我们还检测到花粉饮食与持续（相对于更短暂）农药暴露对蜂王基因表达的独特效应……