Methodology for Single Bee and Bee Brain H-NMR Metabolomics.

The feasibility of metabolomic H NMR spectroscopy is demonstrated for its potential to help unravel the complex factors that are impacting honeybee health and behavior. Targeted and non-targeted H NMR metabolic profiles of liquid and tissue samples of organisms could provide information on the pathology of infections and on environmentally induced stresses. This work reports on establishing extraction methods for NMR metabolic characterization of , the European honeybee, describes the currently assignable aqueous metabolome, and gives examples of diverse samples (brain, head, body, whole bee) and biologically meaningful metabolic variation (drone, forager, day old, deformed wing virus).