Deconstructing the superfood that determines honeybee hierarchy

All bee larvae eat royal jelly when they're new, but only future queens continue to eat it. To figure out why, researchers are taking a close look at the molecular ingredients of the fancy fare.Royal jelly is widely believed to have health benefits, although the medical evidence is scarce and doctors caution that some people have severe allergic reactions. One thing the substance certainly does is promote caste development in honeybees, causing genetically identical larvae to develop into very different adults. All bee larvae eat royal jelly secreted by worker bees for the first few days of life, but those picked out to be queens continue to eat it until they pupate and beyond, whereas those that will become workers switch to honey and pollen. Biologists believe molecular signals in royal jelly drive larval bees to develop into queens, but the details of that signaling including what molecule is most important and how it is recognised are not yet clear.