STRESS PROTEIN RESPONSES in HONEY BEES: IS IT USEFUL TO MEASURE STRESS RESPONSES OF INDIVIDUAL BEES IN THE HIVE? Bal Arılarında Stress Protein Tepkileri: Kovandaki Her Bir Arının Strese Tepkilerinin

Eusociality provides honey bees a broad repertoire of responses, through a colony’s division of labor, to maintain hive homeostasis in the countenance of environmental perturbations. The hive dynamics instrumented by workers must be balanced against losses during periods of stress. Stress proteins, a component of the cellular stress response that is already characterized in species from bacteria to man, provide molecular protection against many stressors at the organismal level of biological organization. A capacious stress protein literature reveals several general patterns. Exposure to sublethal stress increases cellular stress protein concentrations and improves survival to subsequent stress. While promoting survival during periods of stress, over-expression of stress proteins during development may diminish expression of performance traits important later in life under different circumstances. The relatively few studies that have investigated stress responses in bees reveal relationships with abiotic stress (i.e. temperature, toxins) and oxidative stress associated with flight and alcohol consumption. Given the economic importance of the honey bee and the need to better understand how agricultural factors (e.g., hive management practices, pesticides, natural enemies) affect colony performance, investigations of the association between the stress respons