Fecha de publicación: -- Fuente: PubMed "apiculture" Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2026 Nov 3;326:121011. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2026.121011. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTLight pollution affects about one quarter of the Earth's land surface and is rapidly growing in both extent and intensity with accelerated global urbanization. Artificial light at night (ALAN) constitutes the major source of light pollution and poses significant challenges to the health of many organisms, including pollinators. However, whether and how ALAN exposure affects bumblebees' physiology remain unexplored. Our study aims to preliminarily investigate the effects of ALAN exposure on bumblebees and hypothesizes that it may cause physiological damage to gynes. As we expected, ALAN exposure causes precocious death in gynes. Extended light exposure leads to sleep loss and dysfunctional cognitive performance in gynes. In addition, light pollution also disrupts the nutritional homeostasis in gynes. Transcriptomic analysis revealed altered expression of genes associated with sleep, cognition, and nutrient metabolism, suggesting that ALAN exposure may disrupt gut-brain communication in gynes. Furthermore, systemic accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is detected in ALAN-exposed gynes due to down-regulation of genes in the glutathione metabolic pathway. Importantly, both oral supplementation with antioxidants and dark recovery effectively suppress excessive ROS production and reverse the detrimental effects after ALAN exposure to gynes. Our study provides evidence of the detrimental effects of light pollution on gynes for the first time and reveals the pivotal role of oxidative stress in mediating light-induced sleep loss, cognitive impairment, and nutrient homeostasis disruption of bumblebees. This further implicates light pollution as a potential contributor to bumblebees' decline.PMID:42976709 | DOI:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2026.121011