Antennal Protein Profile in Honeybees: Caste and Task Matter More Than Age.

ABSTRACT: Reproductive and task partitioning in large colonies of social insects suggest that colony members belonging to different castes or performing different tasks during their life (polyethism) may produce specific semiochemicals and be differently sensitive to the variety of pheromones involved in intraspecific chemical communication. The main peripheral olfactory organs are the antennal chemosensilla, where the early olfactory processes take place. At this stage, members of two different families of soluble chemosensory proteins [odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and chemosensory proteins (CSPs)] show a remarkable affinity for different odorants and act as carriers while a further family, the Niemann-Pick type C2 proteins (NPC2) may have a similar function, although this has not been fully dem

SUBMITTER: Iovinella I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6019485 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature