Effect of Heat Processing of Royal Jelly at 52 and 72°C on the Growth and Development of Apis mellifera L. Honey Bee Larvae in vitro ( Hymenoptera, Apidea)

Olga Frunze,Peter Njukang Akongte,Dongwon Kim,Eun-Jin Kang,Bo-Sun Park,Kyung-Mun Kim,Yong-Soo Choi 한국양봉학회 2022 韓國養蜂學會誌 Vol.37 No.4

The larval nutritional state of the honey bees is controlled by the Royal Jelly. In addition, it stimulates the regeneration of tissues in other organisms, which has been one of the reasons it uses for cosmetics and as a nutritional ingredient. For the manufacturing and storage of products containing Royal Jelly, heat processing has played a significant role but it has not yet been clarified as a technical factor. The aim of the research was to investigate the effects of heating on the physiological activity of Royal Jelly. We studied the proteins at the native and denatured conditions using heating by the electrophoresis methods. Also, the experiments in vitro were applied when the diets included the non-heated and heated at 52, and 72°C Royal Jelly. The study determined that heating it at 52°C within 5 minutes didn’t change the visible protein composition. This diet was sufficient for the rearing of larvae and hatching of 78.7% against 83.3% of A. mellifera honey bees fed by the diet with non-heated Royal Jelly in the in vitro experiment. However, the weights of the hatched honey bees had significant differences (α=0.05) and were 97.42±14.45 and 102.09±12.49 mg, respectively. This study adds to our understanding of the upper limit of the heat resistance of Royal Jelly proteins by demonstrating the physiological activity of the components after heating at 52°C. So, this temperature can be applied in the protocol of the manufacturing of the Royal Jelly products.

Morphometric Characterization of Honey Bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, Inbred Lines in Korea

Olga Frunze,Yong Soo Сhoi,Dong Won Kim,Bo Sun Park,Hee Geun Park,Eun Jin Kang 한국응용곤충학회 2020 한국응용곤충학회지 Vol.59 No.4

이탈리안벌인 A, C, F계통과 코카시안벌인 D, V계통을 2005년부터 2007년까지 국내에서 수집하였다. 수집한 계통은 육종을 위해 격리 된 섬에서 근친교배를 통해 순계로 분리하였다. 이 연구는 꿀, 로열젤리 다수확계통 선발에 있어 개체군 선발과 육종 효율을 높이기 위해 수행되 었다. 23 개의 형태학적 특성을 평가하고 두 아종의 기존 데이터와 비교한 결과, 이탈리안벌 순계계통은 코카시안벌 순계 계통과 달리8개의 특성이 기존의 이탈리안벌과 유사해 더 많은 특성이 보존되고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 또한 국내에서 유지되고 있는 순계들은 타 지역의 동일 계통과 차 이를 보여 분리된 순계의 형태적인 특징이 확인되었다. The A, C, F colonies of Apis mellifera ligustica Spin. and D, V colony of Apis mellifera caucasia Gorb. bees were collected from 2005-2007. Consequently, inbred lines were derived from the bees of original colonies by matting in the isolated island with due regard for pure breeding. This project helps in the selection of colonies with higher production capacity, aiming to improve honey and royal jelly production and breeding programs. Twenty-three standard morphological traits of honeybee were evaluated, and samples were compared with the data of the two original subspecies. The result suggested that 8 traits partly preserved in bees of inbred lines, and the bees from A. m. ligustica preserved more traits than bees from A. m. caucasia. Among the studied inbred lines, the F line is distinguished by an increase in leg parameters, considered as a favorable phenotypic trait of inbred lines. Importantly, bred of beelines in the same area can be classified as remote and isolated areas. Therefore, we observed differences of inbred lines with the origin subspecies in description acquired with morphometric characteristics as a result of adaptation, breeding, purebred individual lines used as an important resource for breeding novel cross-breeding colonies.

Remote Honey Bee Breeding Center in the Wido Island, the Republic of Korea

Olga Frunze,Peter Njukang Akongte,Dongwon Kim,강은진,김경문,박보선,Yong-Soo Choi 한국양봉학회 2022 韓國養蜂學會誌 Vol.37 No.2

Queens of the honey bees (Apis mellifera and Apis cerana) are extremely polyandry and controlling their mating partners can be possible by having remote isolated mating stations (case study of the Wido Island in the Republic of Korea). This Island is some 14.6 km from the mainland, lacks indigenous honey bees, has an average size of about 11.72 km2, and suitable weather conditions for breeding during the months of May to September excluding the rainy month (July). It is an ideal position for mating of high-quality virgin queen bees with selected drones. Methods of the rearing virgin queen bees are presented and described on the numbers of pure bred colonies of honey bees. In summer 2021, 30 queen cells of Apis cerana were reared in the island while 25 cages of nuclei hives with honey bees and six drone populations of about 9,000 drones were shipped to the island for three mating sessions. Colonies were returned to the mainland three weeks after mating. Mating success was about 79% per mating session. The one-week interval between mating sessions was used to clean the island environment from aging drones. This information is vitally important to manage the controlled mating centers on remote islands because the Republic of Cameroon and Korea have islands that can be used by beekeepers as mating stations for breeding of the selected lines of honey bees.

The accuracy of morphometric characteristic analysis depends on the type of the assessed traits of honey bees (Apis cerana F. and Apis mellifera L.)

Frunze Olga,Kim Dong-Won,Kang Eun-Jin,Kim Kyungmun,Park Bo-Sun,Choi Yong Soo 한국응용곤충학회 2022 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.25 No.4

Conservation of honey bees as pollinators and honey producers requires their assessment using convenient general methods. One of the most commonly used methods involves assessment of morphometric characteristics using random traits. The purpose of the study was to determine a set of morphometric characteristics for identifying the local (R, H: Apis cerana koreana) and adapted (A, C, F: Apis melifera ligustica; D: Apis mellifera carpathica; V: Apis mellifera) lines of honey bees bred in Korea. We found traits with significant differences (p < 0.001), high discriminant coefficient (>100), and range of variation (<50 %). The analysis demonstrated that the widths of the abdomen, forewing, and head, and the lengths of the antenna, body, proboscis, tergites 4 and 3, and forewing can be used as the nine main morphological characteristics for distinguishing the bred lines of honey bees. Furthermore, the last two traits and the length of the head can be used for distinguishing the adapted subspecies A. m. ligustica and A. m. carpathica. Our observations can be used for improving the morphometric method for the conservation of honey bees.

Evaluating the Load mass of foragers enhances the pre-selection of Apis cerana koreana honey bees for honey production

Frunze Olga,Dong Won Kim,김수배,박보선,Peter N. Akongte,Yong-Soo Choi 한국응용곤충학회 2023 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.26 No.2

Improving honey yield is a crucial concern in global beekeeping. Typically, honey extraction is used simulta neously to collect honey and assess honey bees, but this can vary from year to year, which has led to the development of alternative selection methods. The aim of this study was to analyze honey-related traits in order to update honey bee pre-selection methods. Apis cerana koreana X, R lines, RX crossbred were evaluated using traditional (Weekly honey control and Cut-honey) methods, internal morphological traits (Load mass 10 , Load mass 30 , Load mass All , Maximal Load mass All , Load (%), and Nectar crop weight), and Acfor gene expression. Xline colonies were selected for significantly higher (P < 0.0001) Load mass 10 , and Load mass 30 which had high discriminatory power (P < 0.0001) and low positive correlation to traditional methods. Our observations can be used for improving the method of honey bee selection for honey production and reducing dependence on nectar flow. However, further testing on Apis mellifera honey bees is necessary to confirm the universality of these criteria.

Effects of Species and Larvae Weights on Royal Jelly Secreted by Honey Bees (Apis mellifera ligustica and Apis cerana koreana) Bred in Korea

Olga Frunze,Peter Njukang Akongte,Dongwon Kim,Eun-Jin Kang,Bo-Sun Park,Kyung-Mun Kim,Yong-Soo Choi 한국양봉학회 2022 韓國養蜂學會誌 Vol.37 No.4

Honey bees control the cast determination and colony development through the larvae’s nutritional state by the Royal Jelly (RJ). However, the study of RJ dominates for RJ production of Apis mellifera honey bees. In any other case, RJ secretion didn’t apply as a general selection characteristic to estimate the potential and to breed strong colonies. The purpose of this research was to relate the secretion of RJ against the different species and weights of grafted larvae of honey bees collected after 22 hrs. Larvae of different instars (0-2 days old) were grafted into queen cell cups and inserted into rearing colonies for the RJ collection within 22 hrs. The frames were later removed and taken to the bee breeding laboratory for measurements. It was found that the secreted RJ for feeding 1 mg A. m. ligustica larvae significantly differed from A. c. koreana: (57.84±23.32 mg) and (31.25±19.72 mg) respectively. Also, the group with the highest weight of larvae A. m. ligustica (16.04±5.66 mg) got significantly more RJ (147.94±30.04 mg) which was 2.59 times higher than that of larvae from the youngest group. These findings led us to understand that the weight of grafted larvae and species of honey bees influences the secretion of RJ into queen cell cups. Practically, this data can be used to estimate the RJ secretion by workers of honey bees in a short time to breed healthy strong colonies for different purposes.

Physiology estimation of the Apis cerana koreana honey bees to honey yield

Olga Frunze,Akongte Peter Njukang,Dongwon Kim,Eun-Jin Kang,Bo-Sun Park,Kyungmun Kim,Ju-Gyeong Kim,Daegeun Oh,Yong-Soo Сhoi 한국응용곤충학회 2022 한국응용곤충학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2022 No.10

Effects of pupa rearing condition (temperature) on queen weight at emergence raised initially from queenright and queenless colonies (Apis mellifera L.)

Akongte Peter Njukang,Olga Frunze,Kyungmun Kim,Ju-gyeong Kim,Daegeun Oh,Dongwon Kim,Eun-Jin Kang,Bo-sun Park,Yong-Soo Choi 한국응용곤충학회 2022 한국응용곤충학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2022 No.10

Pupa ( Apis mellifera L .) Rearing Conditions to Improve Queen Weight at Emergence

Peter Njukang Akongte,Olga Frunze,Dongwon Kim,Eun-Jin Kang,Bo-Sun Park,Kyung-Mun Kim,Yong-Soo Choi 한국양봉학회 2022 韓國養蜂學會誌 Vol.37 No.4

Queen quality depends on increased body weight at emergence, which is strongly affected by ecological factors during brood rearing; however, much remains undefined in terms of improving queen weight at emergence. We initially reared 12-20 h-old larvae in queenright (QR) and queenless (QL) colonies at temperatures of 28±2ºC and 70±6% relative humidity (RH) and 29±3ºC and 65±8% RH respectively, and later transferred 50% of the pupae into an incubator (34.7±0.42ºC and 80±5% RH). Queen weight at emergence was observed to be the highest in the QR and QL colonies of the incubator (217.36±5.51 mg and 199.61±4.24 mg, respectively) compared to that of QR and QL colonies (199.45±3.60 mg and 182.94±3.35 mg respectively) in the hives. Queen weight at emergence differed significantly among rearing groups (P<0.0001), whereas the difference in the emergence rate was insignificant. We observed that rearing queen bees initially from QR colonies and pupae in an incubator at an optimum and more stable temperature could be an advantage in improving queen weight at emergence. Further studies are needed to investigate their acceptance, mating, and reproductive success rates.

Differential hygienic behavior of Apis cerana F. and Apis mellifera L. to Sacbrood virus infection

Choi Yong Soo,Park-HeeGeun,Frunze Olga 한국응용곤충학회 2022 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.25 No.4

Beekeeping with Apis cerana of Korean apiculture is facing with serious colony collapse caused by invasive Sacbrood virus (SBV) disease. This fatal brood disease was the main reason of more than 90% colony lost in Korea leading almost the extinct crisis. Sacbrood virus can infect either larvae or adult honeybees, with a higher sensibility of larvae to the infection. Since SBV has spread to all over the country, efforts have been made to treat and prevent this devastating disease although no effective results have so far been obtained. Several studies have demonstrated that Apis mellifera bee colonies that express an efficient hygienic behavior exhibit a higher resis tance to the brood disease. In this study we demonstrated that the differences of hygienic behavior between A. cerana and A. mellifera. A. cerana more efficiently removed the pin-killed brood than A. mellifera. On the other hand, A. mellifera more efficiently removed SBV-infected larvae and SBV-dead brood than A. cerana. However, it remains unclear whether the advantage of hygienic bee could have efficacy against Sacbrood disease on A. cerana colonies.