Aging is a natural process that reduces the overall fitness of the all organisms over time. Venomous organisms undergo this with their toxins in the venom glands. In workers bees the venom protein content was reduced to half after 10 to 14 days of age. The queen bee starts off with large quantities of venom believed to be used to kill the current queen to reproduce for the colony. The queen will loss 25% of her venom protein content after 2 weeks. Worker bees are separated into two categories of age. Ages 1-14 days and 14-64 days due to the change in amount of protein content. There is less dramatic decline in venom protein content after the 14th day. The aging process of the venom for queen bees need further study, but was found to last longer than the worker bees (Bridges et al. 1976). The venom for the Amazonian snake (Bothrops atrox) was established to alter as it ages. It was separated into 3 categories due to aging; Juvenile, sub-adult, and adult. The venom make up was found to change as the snake ages (Guercio et al. 2006). This is one of the only studies done on the effects of aging on the venom of snakes, but there have been quite a few for bees.
Bridges, A. Owen, M. (1976) 'Aging in the venom glands of
queen and worker honey bees (Apis melliferal): some morphological and chemical
observations', Toxicon, Vol. 14, Iss. 1, Pgs. 1-2.
Guercio, F. Lopez-Lozano, J. Paba, J. Ricart, C. Shevchenko,
A. Shevchenko, A. Sousa, M. (2006) 'Otogenetic variations in the venom proteome
of the Amazonian snake (Bothrops atrox)', Proteome Science, Vol. 4, Iss. 11.
So out of curiosity, does this actually mean that young/juvenile snakes are more deadly than their adult counterparts? I've heard that this was true in snakes as well as in several species of venomous spider, but never heard any direct answer for it!
ReplyDeleteI didn’t realise that bees had “venom”. It seems to make sense that, as organisms themselves senesce, there is likely to be some kind of ageing process going on in their component parts. That it goes right down to this level of complexity is very fascinating. Is there any indication why so few studies have been conducted, or is this still a relatively new area that is only just starting to be explored?
ReplyDeleteTess: The venom of juveniles are not necessarily more potent than the adults, but usually juveniles do not know how to meter their venom and are more lethal in that way. The question you had is not directly answered because it is only in certain species and cannot be generalized.
ReplyDeleteTasmin: This is defiantly not a new area in bees, but is new for snakes and other venomous animals. The only indication I can tell that there is not many studies on it is that it is very complex and hard to isolate that age is the only component affecting the venom.
Sorry about the long wait for the reply! I got busy and forgot about this post!