ArticleScientific reports2018
A death pheromone, oleic acid, triggers hygienic behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- A New Approach Integrating Brood-Associated Semiochemicals with Additional Feeding for Honey Bee (Insects · 2026Article
- Phenethyl Acetate as an Agonist of Insect Odorant Receptor Co-Receptor (Orco): Molecular Mechanisms and Functional Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Modulation of C. elegans behavior, fitness, and lifespan by AWB/ASH-dependent death perception.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Sequence-Based Multi Ancestry Association Study Reveals the Polygenic Architecture of Varroa destructor Resistance in the Honeybee Apis mellifera.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Varroa Volatiles Offer Chemical Cues to Honey Bees for Initial Parasitic Recognition.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- Honey bees bred for Varroa sensitive hygiene trait demonstrate resistance to chalkbrood disease.PloS one · 2025Article
- Differences between uncapping and removal behaviors in Apis cerana from the perspective of long non-coding RNAs.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of Pathogen and Pesticide Resistance in Honey Bees.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Review
- Mite non-reproduction, recapping behavior, and hygienic behavior (freeze-kill method) linked toJournal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc · 2023Article
- Characterization ofInsects · 2023Article
- Roles of insect odorant binding proteins in communication and xenobiotic adaptation.Frontiers in insect science · 2023Review
- Detailed chemical analysis of honey bee (Apis mellifera) worker brood volatile profile from egg to emergence.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- Design and Synthesis of Fluorophore-Tagged Disparlure Enantiomers to Study Pheromone Enantiomer Discrimination in the Pheromone-Binding Proteins from the Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar.Journal of chemical ecology · 2022Article
- Dead Brood ofAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Linoleic acid as corpse recognition signal in a social aphid.Zoological letters · 2022Article
- Hygiene-Eliciting Brood Semiochemicals as a Tool for Assaying Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colony Resistance to Varroa (Mesostigmata: Varroidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2021Article
- Review
- Suitability of drone olfactory sensitivity as a selection trait for Varroa-resistance in honeybees.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Eusocial insects live in teeming societies with thousands of their kin. In this crowded environment, workers combat disease by removing or burying their dead or diseased nestmates. For honey bees, we found that hygienic brood-removal behavior is triggered by two odorants - β-ocimene and oleic acid - which are released from brood upon freeze-killing. β-ocimene is a co-opted pheromone that normally signals larval food-begging, whereas oleic acid is a conserved necromone across arthropod taxa. Interestingly, the odorant blend can induce hygienic behavior more consistently than either odorant alone. We suggest that the volatile β-ocimene flags hygienic workers' attention, while oleic acid is the death cue, triggering removal. Bees with high hygienicity detect and remove brood with these odorants faster than bees with low hygienicity, and both molecules are strong ligands for hygienic behavior-associated odorant binding proteins (OBP16 and OBP18). Odorants that induce low levels of hygienic behavior, however, are weak ligands for these OBPs. We are therefore beginning to paint a picture of the molecular mechanism behind this complex behavior, using odorants associated with freeze-killed brood as a model.
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