Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides
A reduction in floral resource abundance and diversity is generally observed in agro-ecosystems, along with widespread exposure to pesticides. Therefore, a better understanding on how the availability and quality of pollen diets can modulate honeybee sensitivity to pesticides is required. For that p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210818 |
| _version_ | 1818584528845799424 |
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| author | Lena Barascou Deborah Sene Alexandre Barraud Denis Michez Victor Lefebvre Piotr Medrzycki Gennaro Di Prisco Verena Strobl Orlando Yañez Peter Neumann Yves Le Conte Cedric Alaux |
| author_facet | Lena Barascou Deborah Sene Alexandre Barraud Denis Michez Victor Lefebvre Piotr Medrzycki Gennaro Di Prisco Verena Strobl Orlando Yañez Peter Neumann Yves Le Conte Cedric Alaux |
| author_sort | Lena Barascou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A reduction in floral resource abundance and diversity is generally observed in agro-ecosystems, along with widespread exposure to pesticides. Therefore, a better understanding on how the availability and quality of pollen diets can modulate honeybee sensitivity to pesticides is required. For that purpose, we evaluated the toxicity of acute exposure and chronic exposures to field realistic and higher concentrations of azoxystrobin (fungicide) and sulfoxaflor (insecticide) in honeybees provided with pollen diets of differing qualities (named S and BQ pollens). We found that pollen intake reduced the toxicity of the acute doses of pesticides. Contrary to azoxystrobin, chronic exposures to sulfoxaflor increased by 1.5- to 12-fold bee mortality, which was reduced by pollen intake. Most importantly, the risk of death upon exposure to a high concentration of sulfoxaflor was significantly lower for the S pollen diet when compared with the BQ pollen diet. This reduced pesticide toxicity was associated with a higher gene expression of vitellogenin, a glycoprotein that promotes bee longevity, a faster sulfoxaflor metabolization and a lower concentration of the phytochemical p-coumaric acid, known to upregulate detoxification enzymes. Thus, our study revealed that pollen quality can influence the ability of bees to metabolize pesticides and withstand their detrimental effects, providing another strong argument for the restoration of suitable foraging habitat. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:22:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ae3925087ed3479db6938e28fa29f92b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:22:37Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-ae3925087ed3479db6938e28fa29f92b2022-12-21T22:38:05ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032021-09-018910.1098/rsos.210818Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticidesLena Barascou0Deborah Sene1Alexandre Barraud2Denis Michez3Victor Lefebvre4Piotr Medrzycki5Gennaro Di Prisco6Verena Strobl7Orlando Yañez8Peter Neumann9Yves Le Conte10Cedric Alaux11INRAE, Abeilles et Environnement, Avignon, FranceINRAE, Abeilles et Environnement, Avignon, FranceResearch Institute for Biosciences, Laboratory of Zoology, University of Mons, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, BelgiumResearch Institute for Biosciences, Laboratory of Zoology, University of Mons, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, BelgiumResearch Institute for Biosciences, Laboratory of Zoology, University of Mons, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, BelgiumCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics—Agriculture and Environment Research Centre, Via di Corticella 133, 40128 Bologna, ItalyCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics—Agriculture and Environment Research Centre, Via di Corticella 133, 40128 Bologna, ItalyInstitute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandINRAE, Abeilles et Environnement, Avignon, FranceINRAE, Abeilles et Environnement, Avignon, FranceA reduction in floral resource abundance and diversity is generally observed in agro-ecosystems, along with widespread exposure to pesticides. Therefore, a better understanding on how the availability and quality of pollen diets can modulate honeybee sensitivity to pesticides is required. For that purpose, we evaluated the toxicity of acute exposure and chronic exposures to field realistic and higher concentrations of azoxystrobin (fungicide) and sulfoxaflor (insecticide) in honeybees provided with pollen diets of differing qualities (named S and BQ pollens). We found that pollen intake reduced the toxicity of the acute doses of pesticides. Contrary to azoxystrobin, chronic exposures to sulfoxaflor increased by 1.5- to 12-fold bee mortality, which was reduced by pollen intake. Most importantly, the risk of death upon exposure to a high concentration of sulfoxaflor was significantly lower for the S pollen diet when compared with the BQ pollen diet. This reduced pesticide toxicity was associated with a higher gene expression of vitellogenin, a glycoprotein that promotes bee longevity, a faster sulfoxaflor metabolization and a lower concentration of the phytochemical p-coumaric acid, known to upregulate detoxification enzymes. Thus, our study revealed that pollen quality can influence the ability of bees to metabolize pesticides and withstand their detrimental effects, providing another strong argument for the restoration of suitable foraging habitat.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210818beessurvivalpesticide residuevitellogeninp-coumaric acidmetabolization |
| spellingShingle | Lena Barascou Deborah Sene Alexandre Barraud Denis Michez Victor Lefebvre Piotr Medrzycki Gennaro Di Prisco Verena Strobl Orlando Yañez Peter Neumann Yves Le Conte Cedric Alaux Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides Royal Society Open Science bees survival pesticide residue vitellogenin p-coumaric acid metabolization |
| title | Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| title_full | Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| title_fullStr | Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| title_short | Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| title_sort | pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides |
| topic | bees survival pesticide residue vitellogenin p-coumaric acid metabolization |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210818 |
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