Figure 1.
Relationships between Sucrose Responsiveness and Ovary Size in Worker Honey Bees.
(A) Pie charts showing the distributions of ovary sizes between bees with low (GRS 0–3, n = 141) and high (GRS 4–9, n = 149) responsiveness to sucrose. Ovary sizes are given as the total number of ovarioles per bee (i.e., summing over both ovaries). (B) Comparison between the means and standard errors of ovary sizes between bees with low and high sucrose responsiveness. Bees with high GRS scores are characterized by significantly larger ovaries on average.
Figure 2.
Association of Sucrose Responsiveness, Ovary Size, and Vitellogenin mRNA Level in Worker Honey Bees.
(A) Means and standard errors of the ovary sizes in the subsets of bees selected from the extreme tails of the ovariole number and GRS and distributions; LL = small ovaries (3–9 ovarioles) and low GRS (0–2), HH = large ovaries (17–29 ovarioles) and high GRS (4–7), n = 44 and 43, respectively. L and H were laboratory handling controls that were selected only on the basis of ovary size, GRS was not determined (n = 10; ovariole number was 3–9 and 12–23, respectively, H spanned lower ovary sizes than HH as there were not a sufficient number of bees to obtain in the 17–29 range). HH and LL differ significantly for ovariole number (P<0.0001, one-way ANOVA). (B) Means and standard errors of the log-transformed vitellogenin mRNA expression level given as a relative quantity (RQ). Bees with large ovaries and high GRS are characterized by significantly higher vitellogenin levels on average (P<0.005, one-way ANOVA). The controls show no significant effect of handling.