The Effect Of Ova Source On The Quality Of Reared Honeybee Queen And Its Offspring

Honey bee colony growth is highly depend on the egg-laying ability of its queen,so the quality of the queen is particularly important for colony survival and development.Since the birth of artificial queen-rearing technology,researchers are constantly exploring how to artificially produce high-quality queens.Western bees(Apis mellifera)were used as experimental materials in this study,eggs were laid in queen’s cells(QE),eggs were laid in worker cells(WE)and 2-day-old larvae(2L)were used for rearing queens,the effects of ova source on the quality of queen rearing were analyzed by measuring the newly emerged weight,number of ovarioles,thoracic indexes,length of queen cells,remaining amount of royal jelly and the expression level of development-related genes of honey bee queen.The results showed that the queens of QE,WE and 2L groups showed a decreasing trend in the length of the queen’s cells and weight of royal jelly remaining;the weight,number of ovarioles,thorax width and thorax weight of newly emerged queens of QE were significantly higher than that of WE and 2L,and that of WE were significantly higher than 2L;the gene expression levels of Hex110 and Trf of QE group were significantly higher than those in WE and 2L groups,while no significant difference was found in the other two groups;there was no significant difference in the gene expression levels of Hex70 b and Vg among the three groups.The reproductive ability of virgin queens that were reared with the three kinds of ova sources were compared when they mated and then laid eggs.The results showed that the number of eggs and the number of capped cells within 6 h of QE were significantly higher than 2L,while the difference in the number of eggs and the number of colonies capped between QE and WE,WE and 2L were not significant;the length of eggs laid by queens of QE was significantly higher than that in WE and 2L,but the difference between WE and2 L groups was not significant;the difference between the weight and width of eggs laid by each queen was not significant among the three groups.In order to compare the effect of the reared queens by the three ova sources on colony productivity,the three types of queens were intervened into colonies with the same colony potential and tested for colony collection and productivity after 2 months of queen laying.The results showed that ova source,larva and nurse bees can affect royal jelly production,and using QE offspring larvae and rearing in QE colony had a higher royal jelly production,with 72 h larvae had a better developmental environment,and in production practice,it is better to use QE larvae and honey bee colony to produce royal jelly.The pollen-collecting and flying ability of queen offspring forager bees of QE was better than the other two groups.There was a trend that the amount of nectar and pollen stored in QE group was higher than that of the other two groups.The above three types of queens were used to rear F2 generation queens and the differences in the quality of F2 generation queens were analyzed.The results showed that the newly born weight and thoracic size of F2 generation queens of QE were significantly higher than that of F2 generation queens of WE and 2L;the ovarioles’ number of F2 generation queens of QE were significantly higher than that of F2 generation queens of 2L,while the difference between F2 generation queens of QE and WE,WE and 2L were not significant;the gene expression levels of Hex110,Cyt P450,Jh-like and Hymenoptaecin for F2 generation queens of QE were significantly higher than that for F2 queens of WE and2 L,but the difference between F2 queens of WE and 2L was not significant;the gene expression levels of Vg,Hex70 b and Abeacin for F2 generation queens of QE were significantly higher than that of 2L,while none significant difference was found in F2 generation queens of QE and WE,WE and 2L;the gene expression levels of Trf for F2 queens of QE were significantly higher than that of F2 queens of WE,but the difference between F2 generation queens of QE and 2L,WE and 2L was not significant.