ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Proline as a fuel for insect flight: enhancing carbohydrate oxidation in hymenopterans.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 160 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Untargeted metabolomics suggests a trade-off between phenolamides and flavonoids in the pollen of Petunia hybrida with contrasting flower colours.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Oxidation and allocation of nectar amino acids during butterfly flight.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Winter intensity shapes overwintering energy gain and use in bark beetles under range expansion.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Tissue-specific mitochondrial pathway remodeling linked to longevity in honeybee queens.PloS one · 2026Article
- The loss of the urea cycle and ornithine metabolism in different insect orders: An omics approach.Insect molecular biology · 2025Article
- Comparative metabolomics reveals how the severity of predation by the invasive insect Cydalima perspectalis modulates the metabolism re-orchestration of native Buxus sempervirens.Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) · 2025Article
- The metabolic costs of meiotic drive.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
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- Environment or Pollinators? Factors Shaping Breeding System and Spatial Variation in Nectar Properties and Pollination System in a Desert SpeciesEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Do pollinators play a role in shaping the essential amino acids found in nectar?The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Effects of pollen patties with curcumin-steviol glycoside complex onJournal of animal science and technology · 2025Article
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- Alteration of mitochondrial function in arthropods during arboviruses infection: a review of the literature.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Stage-resolved transcriptomic profiling ofFrontiers in insect science · 2025Article
- Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Selection for Late Reproduction Leads to Loss of Complex I Mitochondrial Capacity and Associated Increased Longevity in Seed Beetles.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024Article
- Insect Flight Energetics and the Evolution of Size, Form, and Function.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Review
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bees are thought to be strict users of carbohydrates as metabolic fuel for flight. Many insects, however, have the ability to oxidize the amino acid proline at a high rate, which is a unique feature of this group of animals. The presence of proline in the haemolymph of bees and in the nectar of plants led to the hypothesis that plants may produce proline as a metabolic reward for pollinators. We investigated flight muscle metabolism of hymenopteran species using high-resolution respirometry performed on permeabilized muscle fibres. The muscle fibres of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, do not have a detectable capacity to oxidize proline, as those from the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, used here as an outgroup representative. The closely related bumblebee, Bombus impatiens, can oxidize proline alone and more than doubles its respiratory capacity when proline is combined with carbohydrate-derived substrates. A distant wasp species, Vespula vulgaris, exhibits the same metabolic phenotype as the bumblebee, suggesting that proline oxidation is common in hymenopterans. Using a combination of mitochondrial substrates and inhibitors, we further show that in B. impatiens, proline oxidation provides reducing equivalents and electrons directly to the electron transport system. Together, these findings demonstrate that some bee and wasp species can greatly enhance the oxidation of carbohydrates using proline as fuel for flight.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.