ArticleScientific reports2021
Nectar non-protein amino acids (NPAAs) do not change nectar palatability but enhance learning and memory in honey bees.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bacterial supplementation shapes honey bee gut microbiota and host metabolism under controlled and field conditions.mSystems · 2026Article
- Dual modulation of toxic risks and functional benefits: How traditional practices enable safe consumption of toxicFrontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Augmenting plant-pollinator interactions to promote biodiversity and global food security.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Do honey phytochemicals modulate forager aggression and the gut microbiome in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.)?Biology open · 2025Article
- Assessment of Floral Nectar and Amino Acid Yield in Eight Landscape Trees for Enhanced Pollinator Food Resources in Urban Forests.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Learning performance and GABAergic pathway link to deformed wing virus in the mushroom bodies of naturally infected honey bees.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Enhancing Honey Bee Health: Evaluating Pollen Substitute Diets in Field and Cage Experiments.Insects · 2024Article
- Invasive ant learning is not affected by seven potential neuroactive chemicals.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Differential Brain Expression Patterns of microRNAs Related to Olfactory Performance in Honey Bees (Genes · 2023Article
- Does Reproductive Success in Natural and Anthropogenic Populations of GeneralistInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- To each their own! Nectar plasticity within a flower mediates distinct ecological interactions.AoB PLANTS · 2023Article
- Secondary Metabolites in Nectar-Mediated Plant-Pollinator Relationships.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Hemolymph Metabolism Analysis of Honey Bee (Insects · 2022Article
- Discovery of octopamine and tyramine in nectar and their effects on bumblebee behavior.iScience · 2022Article
- Learning of a mimic odor combined with nectar nonsugar compounds enhances honeybee pollination of a commercial crop.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Floral nectar is a pivotal element of the intimate relationship between plants and pollinators. Nectars are composed of a plethora of nutritionally valuable compounds but also hundreds of secondary metabolites (SMs) whose function remains elusive. Here we performed a set of behavioural experiments to study whether five ubiquitous nectar non-protein amino acids (NPAAs: β-alanine, GABA, citrulline, ornithine and taurine) interact with gustation, feeding preference, and learning and memory in Apis mellifera. We showed that foragers were unable to discriminate NPAAs from water when only accessing antennal chemo-tactile information and that freely moving bees did not exhibit innate feeding preferences for NPAAs. Also, NPAAs did not alter food consumption or longevity in caged bees over 10 days. Taken together our data suggest that natural concentrations of NPAAs did not alter nectar palatability to bees. Olfactory conditioning assays showed that honey bees were more likely to learn a scent when it signalled a sucrose reward containing either β-alanine or GABA, and that GABA enhanced specific memory retention. Conversely, when ingested two hours prior to conditioning, GABA, β-alanine, and taurine weakened bees' acquisition performances but not specific memory retention, which was enhanced in the case of β-alanine and taurine. Neither citrulline nor ornithine affected learning and memory. NPAAs in nectars may represent a cooperative strategy adopted by plants to attract beneficial pollinators.
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