Worker bees preventing diapause in Bombus terrestris queens via tyrosine metabolism

The reproductive dormancy (diapause) of bumblebee queens is a major bottleneck for controlled pollination services. We demonstrate that direct social interaction with worker bees rapidly terminates queen diapause and triggers oviposition, bypassing the need for hibernation. This worker bee induction, especially when combined with CO₂ treatment, significantly shortens the time to egg-laying compared to conventional methods. Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses identified the activation of tyrosine metabolism as the central mechanism driving this socially induced reproductive switch. Our findings establish a novel, efficient method for breaking diapause in commercial bumblebee rearing and pinpoint tyrosine metabolism as a potential target for manipulating reproductive cycles in social insects.