Studies on underlying mechanisms of hygienic behaviour in honey bee, Apis mellifera L.

Hygienic behaviour in honey bees refers to the ability of a colony to detect andremove diseased or dead broods from the hive. This behaviour is crucial for the overall healthand survival of the bee colony. So, the honey bee, Apis mellifera colonies were selected andmarked for evaluating their hygienic behaviour at UHF Apiary in the experimental farm fromMarch, 2022 to November 2024. The bee colony with the most hygienic (removed >90%dead brood within 24h post-L-N2 freezing) and least hygienic (removed <60% dead broodwithin 24h post L-N 2 freezing) behaviour were selected for gene expression study. The newlyemerged worker bees were tagged using coloured number discs. After 15 days, the broodframe was subjected to L-N 2 freezing and the activity of tagged workers were recorded usingan infra-red camera. Around ten workers from 3 most hygienic and 3 least hygienic colonieswhich were actively involved in uncapping and removal of damaged pupae were collectedand quickly transferred in liquid nitrogen. Further, the transcriptomic profiling of two pooledsamples (hygienic and non-hygienic) were undertaken to find out different genes. The RNAwas extracted from head region of the A. mellifera workers.