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Variation in behavioural maturation in tropical honey bees corresponds with hormonal and molecular differences.

Overview

Authors: Sruthi Unnikrishnan1, Deepika Bais1, Ashwin Suryanarayanan1, Aridni Shah1, Axel Brockmann1
ORCID iDs: Sruthi Unnikrishnan, Deepika Bais, Ashwin Suryanarayanan, Axel Brockmann
  1. National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bengaluru, Karnataka 560065, India
Institutions: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (India); National Centre for Biological Sciences (India)
Journal: The Journal of experimental biology, volume 229, issue 8, article jeb251399
Dates: received 8 August 2025; accepted 8 March 2026; published online 23 April 2026; in print April 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1242/jeb.251399 · PMID 41822990 · PMCID PMC13143204 · OpenAlex W7135178916
Open access: hybrid, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: other (organism)
Methods: Statistics
Keywords: Asian honey bees, Juvenile hormone, Comparative study, Foraging, Apis florea, Apis cerana
MeSH: Behavior, Animal*, Juvenile Hormones*, Animals, Bees, Insect Proteins, Species Specificity, Transcription Factors, Vitellogenins (* major topic)
Topic: Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior (Genetics, Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India (12-R&D-TFR-5.04-0800, 12-R&D-TFR-5.04–0800, 12-R&D-TFR-5.04-0900, 12-R&D-TFR-5.04-0900); Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, NCBS (416-12P4167); CSIR Junior Research Fellow (CSIR-JRF-09/0860(11832)/2021-EMR-I); Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (12P4167); DST-SERB National Post-Doctoral Fellow (PDF/2018/001005); Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India; Science and Engineering Research Board (PDF/2018/001005); Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (CSIR-JRF-09/0860(11832)/2021-EMR-I); National Centre for Biological Sciences
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 99 references in the paper

Abstract

Division of labour in honey bees is based on a process of behavioural development in which the worker bee successively performs different tasks at different ages. Workers start with tasks within the nest and move on to become foragers. In Apis mellifera, juvenile hormone and vitellogenin are major drivers of this behavioural maturation, which is accompanied by changes in brain physiology, including changes in neuronal gene expression and synaptic connections. Based on this detailed knowledge, we asked whether and how major characteristics of the behavioural maturation process vary among two tropical Asian honey bee species, the phylogenetically ancestral open-nesting Apis florea and the cavity-nesting Apis cerana, a sister species to Apis mellifera. Our behavioural studies showed that workers of A. florea exhibited a slower pace of behavioural maturation than A. cerana, with greater individual variation in the age at onset of foraging. In both species, the expression pattern of juvenile hormone and foraging-associated transcription factors broadly mirrored those reported for A. mellifera. In contrast, expression dynamics of vitellogenin and nurse-associated transcription factors in both species did not show the clear age- or task-related pattern as reported for A. mellifera. Notably, workers of A. florea consistently exhibited substantially higher vitellogenin expression levels than did A. cerana workers. Based on our findings, we propose that evolution of accelerated behavioural maturation in cavity-nesting species is primarily attributed to changes in the temporal dynamics of juvenile hormone signalling, whereas vitellogenin levels might vary according to different social functions.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 6 keywords, 8 MeSH terms, 9 funders, 82 references.

Cite

This paper

Unnikrishnan, S., Bais, D., Suryanarayanan, A., Shah, A., & Brockmann, A. (2026). Variation in behavioural maturation in tropical honey bees corresponds with hormonal and molecular differences. The Journal of experimental biology, 229(8), jeb251399. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251399

BibTeX

@article{unnikrishnan2026variation,
author = {Unnikrishnan, Sruthi and Bais, Deepika and Suryanarayanan, Ashwin and Shah, Aridni and Brockmann, Axel},
title = {{Variation in behavioural maturation in tropical honey bees corresponds with hormonal and molecular differences}},
journal = {The Journal of experimental biology},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {229},
number = {8},
pages = {jeb251399},
publisher = {The Company of Biologists},
issn = {0022-0949},
doi = {10.1242/jeb.251399},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251399},
pmid = {41822990},
pmcid = {PMC13143204}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Unnikrishnan, Sruthi
AU - Bais, Deepika
AU - Suryanarayanan, Ashwin
AU - Shah, Aridni
AU - Brockmann, Axel
TI - Variation in behavioural maturation in tropical honey bees corresponds with hormonal and molecular differences
T2 - The Journal of experimental biology
J2 - J Exp Biol
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/04/23
VL - 229
IS - 8
SP - jeb251399
SN - 0022-0949
PB - The Company of Biologists
DO - 10.1242/jeb.251399
UR - https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251399
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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"issued": {
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