Few substances in nature are more magical than royal jelly, a protein confection secreted by worker bees and eaten by bee larvae.

For the first several days of their lives, all larvae eat royal jelly;

after that, most move on to nectar and pollen. They grow up to be sterile and short-lived workers, toiling tirelessly for the colony's greater good before dying after a few seasons. But a few lucky larvae stay on an all-jelly diet: they grow up to be queens, laying eggs and living for years.

What's so special about royal jelly? Scientists aren't sure – but in a study published yesterday in Science, Australian National University biologists suggest that it's an epigenetic agent, activating genes in just the right combination for turning a would-be worker into a queen.

They arrived at this conclusion by using an enzyme called Dnmt3 to turn off DNA methylation – the chemical process by which genes are silenced

\– in bee larvae, which then became queens with fully-grown ovaries.

Since their development paralleled that of jelly-fed queens, the researchers reasoned that royal jelly does the same thing.

Assuming the inference proves correct, scientists must next determine how royal jelly does this, and what genes are involved in the process.

Another question, given royal jelly's powers in bees: what happens when people eat it? The substance is sold at caviar-equivalent prices as a dietary supplement, fertility aid, medicine and cosmetic, but clinical data doesn't yet support its use for any of these purposes.

However, the topic is explored in one of Roald Dahl's lesser-known short stories, "Royal Jelly."

Nutritional Control of Reproductive Status in Honeybees via DNA Methylation [Science]

*Image: Bee larva feeding on royal jelly, courtesty of Scotty_D *

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter and Del.icio.us feeds; Wired Science on Facebook.