The sticky, nutritious bee secretion given to future queen bees, royal jelly, is related to ancient bacteria genes which developed a new role in the honey bee, scientists from The Australian National University have discovered.

Dr Ryszard Maleszka and his team from the Research School of Biological Sciences at ANU found that crucial proteins in royal jelly related to the ancient genes are both “nature and nurture” in bee society – they are catalysts for queen bees to sexually mature, as well as playing a developmental role in bee brains.

“Royal jelly in bees has context-dependent functions,” Dr Maleszka said. “The royal jelly proteins used in the honey bee brain have different implications than those consumed by queen bees as nutrients in royal jelly.”

The comprehensive analysis of the genomic organisation and function of the royal jelly protein family – MRJP – found the royal food source evolved by duplications of an ancient bacterial gene, and gained new functions in honey bees.

They are used for both nutritional control of the queen’s reproductive development and also for brain development and function. “So in honey bees, nature and nurture converge to create complex behaviour,” Dr Maleszka said.

The discovery is a further piece in the puzzle explaining the complex biological structure and social society of the honey bee, which has fascinated scientists for centuries.

The results of the royal jelly research is published in the journal Genome Research, and coincides with the announcement of the complete sequencing of the honey bee genome, in which Dr Maleszka and ANU scientists played a pioneering role.

As part of this project, the ANU group – including Sylvain Foret, Robert Kucharski and Paul Helliwell - also developed tools to measure the activity of thousands of genes at the same time, including in the brain and in the queen’s ovary.

This research that provides insight into how genes and nutrition interact during development received a major boost by the discovery that honey bees posses a mammalian-like DNA methylation system, which is used to link environmental changes with genome expression. The report on this discovery (to which Maleszka contributed) will appear in Science.

Dr Maleszka’s honey bee genome research was supported by the ARC Special Research Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development (CMGD).

More information: Amanda Morgan, ANU Media Office, 02 6125 5575 / 0416 249 245