Abstract: This study aimed to examine the effects of different dietary sugars for honeybees on the quality of royal jelly. Metabonomics analysis of royal jelly produced by honeybees fed three different sugars, white sugar, honey and high fructose syrup was conducted using gas chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-QTOF-MS). The results showed that the contents of proline, isoleucine, valine, lactose, hydroxyproline, capric acid and L-sulfanalanine were significantly higher in the honey-fed group compared with the sugar-fed group (P < 0.05). The contents of sucrose and maltose were significantly higher (P < 0.05), whereas the contents of glycerol, cellobiose, isoleucine, xylose, hydroxyproline, lactose and L-sulfaalanine were significantly lower in high fructose syrup group compared with the honey-fed group (P < 0.05). The contents of palmitic acid, maltose, threonine and galactose were significantly higher in the high fructose syrup-fed group (P < 0.05), while the contents of cellobiose, pine disaccharides, xylose, lactose and erythritol were significantly lower in the high fructose syrup-fed group compared with the sugar-fed group (P < 0.05). These differences may affect the growth and development of honeybee larvae and also have an impact on royal jelly quality. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for the selection of appropriate dietary sugars for honeybees and for further research on the factors that affect the composition of royal jelly.

Key words: dietary sugars, GC-QTOF-MS, metabolomics, royal jelly, metabolites, honey, high fructose syrup, sucrose