What makes “killer” or “Africanized” bees more aggressive than European bees? Researchers from Brazil used MALDI-MS and mass spec imaging to analyze the brains of 20-day-old Africanized honeybees, discovering that specific neuropeptides were present in those bees that exhibited aggressive behaviour. When young honeybees were injected with these substances, they too became aggressive.
Reference. M Pratavieira et al., “MALDI imaging analysis of neuropeptides in Africanized honeybee brain: Effect of aggressiveness”, J Proteome Res, 17, 2358–2369 (2018).
