Best be(e) on low fat: linking nutrient perception, regulation and fitness

Preventing malnutrition through consuming nutritionally appropriate resources represents a challenge for foraging animals. This is due to often high variation in the nutritional quality of available resources. Foragers consequently need to evaluate different food sources. However, even the same food...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2020-03, Vol.23 (3), p.545-554
Main Authors: Ruedenauer, Fabian A., Raubenheimer, David, Kessner‐Beierlein, Daniela, Grund‐Mueller, Nils, Noack, Lisa, Spaethe, Johannes, Leonhardt, Sara D., Mayfield, Margaret
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
bee decline
Bees
Bombus
Bumblebees
Feeding Behavior
Fitness
Food
Food sources
foraging
Lipids
Low fat
Malnutrition
Nutrients
nutrition
PER
Perception
plant–insect interactions
Pollen
pollen quality
Quality assessment
Quality control
Reproduction
Reproductive fitness
resource use
Survival
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Preventing malnutrition through consuming nutritionally appropriate resources represents a challenge for foraging animals. This is due to often high variation in the nutritional quality of available resources. Foragers consequently need to evaluate different food sources. However, even the same food source can provide a plethora of nutritional and non‐nutritional cues, which could serve for quality assessment. We show that bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, overcome this challenge by relying on lipids as nutritional cue when selecting pollen. The bees ‘prioritised’ lipid perception in learning experiments and avoided lipid consumption in feeding experiments, which supported survival and reproduction. In contrast, survival and reproduction were severely reduced by increased lipid contents. Our study highlights the importance of fat regulation for pollen foraging bumblebees. It also reveals that nutrient perception, nutrient regulation and reproductive fitness can be linked, which represents an effective strategy enabling quick foraging decisions that prevent malnutrition and maximise fitness. Preventing malnutrition through consuming nutritionally appropriate resources represents a challenge for foraging animals, as the same food source can provide a plethora of nutritional and non‐nutritional cues. The bumble bee Bombus terrestris overcomes this challenge by ‘prioritising’ lipid perception and avoiding lipid over consumption, which supports survival and reproduction. Our study reveals that nutrient perception, nutrient regulation and reproductive fitness can be linked, which represents an effective strategy enabling quick foraging decisions that prevent malnutrition and maximise fitness.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.13454