scholarly journals Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anissa Kennedy ◽  
Tianfei Peng ◽  
Simone M. Glaser ◽  
Melissa Linn ◽  
Susanne Foitzik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Waggle Dance ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Prior Experiences

AbstractCommunication is essential for social animals, but deciding how to utilize information provided by conspecifics is a complex process that depends on environmental and intrinsic factors. Honey bees use a unique form of communication, the waggle dance, to inform nestmates about the location of food sources. However, as in many other animals, experienced individuals often ignore this social information and prefer to rely on prior experiences, i.e. private information. The neurosensory factors that drive the decision to use social information are not yet understood. Here we test whether the decision to use social dance information or private information is linked to gene expression differences in different parts of the nervous system. We trained bees to collect food from sugar water feeders and observed whether they utilize social or private information when exposed to dances for a new food source. We performed transcriptome analysis of four brain parts critical for cognition: the subesophageal ganglion, the central brain, the mushroom bodies, and the antennal lobes but, unexpectedly, detected no differences between social or private information users. In contrast, we found 413 differentially expressed genes in the antennae, suggesting that variation in sensory perception mediate the decision to use social information. Social information users were characterized by the upregulation of dopamine and serotonin genes while private information users upregualted several genes coding for odor perception. These results highlight that decision making in honey bees might also depend on peripheral processes of perception rather than higher-order brain centers of information integration.

scholarly journals Octopamine and dopamine mediate waggle dance following and information use in honeybees

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1936) ◽  
pp. 20201950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Linn ◽  
Simone M. Glaser ◽  
Tianfei Peng ◽  
Christoph Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Waggle Dance ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neurophysiological Basis

Honeybees can be directed to profitable food sources by following waggle dances performed by other bees. Followers can often choose between using this social information or relying on memories about food sources they have visited in the past, so-called private information. While the circumstances that favour the use of either social or private information have received considerable attention, still little is known about the neurophysiological basis of information use. We hypothesized that octopamine and dopamine, two biogenic amines with important functions in reward signalling and learning, affect dance use in honeybees. We orally administered octopamine and dopamine when bees collected food at artificial feeders and tested if this affected interest in dance information about a new food source. We predicted that octopamine reduces interest in dances and strengthens private information use via an increase in the perceived value of the previously exploited resource. Since dopamine has been shown to lower reward perception, we expected it to act in the opposite direction. Octopamine-treated foragers indeed followed 32% fewer dances than control bees and increased the use of private information. Conversely, dopamine-treated bees followed dances 15% longer than control bees, but surprisingly did not use social information more. Overall, our results suggest that biogenic amine signalling affects interactions among dancers and dance followers and, thus, information flow about high-quality food sources.

scholarly journals Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anissa Kennedy ◽  
Tianfei Peng ◽  
Simone M. Glaser ◽  
Melissa Linn ◽  
Susanne Foitzik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Waggle Dance ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Honey bees show dance pattern to communicate – A review

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Momin Aziz Khan ◽  
Naiha Ijaz Sulehri ◽  
Muhammad Talha ◽  
Aqsa Nazar ◽  
Hafiz Ghulam Muhu-Din Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Waggle Dance ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Nest Sites ◽  
Comprehensive Knowledge ◽  
Dance Communication ◽  
Path Calculation ◽  
Broad Overview

The honey bee language is considered by many to be one of the most interesting systems for animal communications, used for recruitment to food sources. Honeybee's forager dancers communicate food and other resources to the household by quantity, consistency, direction, and spatial location. The waggle dance was interesting and complex, which bees used for spatial information on desired resources. All honeybee species use the waggle dance to convey their position and distance from food sources and possible new nest sites. The research was carried out on dance communication, earlier ideas, controversies, and solutions gave a broad overview. In this analysis, unique problems are focused on as follows: (a) multiple dance forms. (b) Distance and path calculation (c) How bees do dark hive dance.? Several experiments verified that bees perform various kinds of dance, depending on their particular task. There is, however, still a lack of comprehensive knowledge on other types of dances, which help us solve numerous questions and help us better understand the meaning of the different kinds of dances carried in and outside the hive by honeybees.

scholarly journals An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie I’Anson Price ◽  
Francisca Segers ◽  
Amelia Berger ◽  
Fabio S Nascimento ◽  
Christoph Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Stingless Bees ◽  
Sugar Content ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Recruitment Communication ◽  
Eusocial Bees ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to (1) the sugar content of forage, (2) the duration of foraging trips and (3) the variation in activity of a colony from one day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly-recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favour food resources that can be monopolised by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.

scholarly journals Are Honey Bees at Risk from Microplastics?

Toxics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Yahya Al Naggar ◽  
Markus Brinkmann ◽  
Christie M. Sayes ◽  
Saad N. AL-Kahtani ◽  
Showket A. Dar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Persistent Pollutants ◽  
Research Questions

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous and persistent pollutants, and have been detected in a wide variety of media, from soils to aquatic systems. MPs, consisting primarily of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyacrylamide polymers, have recently been found in 12% of samples of honey collected in Ecuador. Recently, MPs have also been identified in honey bees collected from apiaries in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as nearby semiurban and rural areas. Given these documented exposures, assessment of their effects is critical for understanding the risks of MP exposure to honey bees. Exposure to polystyrene (PS)-MPs decreased diversity of the honey bee gut microbiota, followed by changes in gene expression related to oxidative damage, detoxification, and immunity. As a result, the aim of this perspective was to investigate whether wide-spread prevalence of MPs might have unintended negative effects on health and fitness of honey bees, as well as to draw the scientific community’s attention to the possible risks of MPs to the fitness of honey bees. Several research questions must be answered before MPs can be considered a potential threat to bees.

Smoothened-mediated Hedgehog signalling is required for the maintenance of the anterior-posterior lineage restriction in the developing wing of Drosophila

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (20) ◽  
pp. 4053-4063 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.S. Blair ◽  
A. Ralston
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cellular Mechanisms ◽  
Hedgehog Signalling ◽  
Compartment Boundary ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Normal Site ◽  
Selector Genes ◽  
Signalling Models ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Anterior Posterior

It is thought that the posterior expression of the ‘selector’ genes engrailed and invected control the subdivision of the growing wing imaginal disc of Drosophila into anterior and posterior lineage compartments. At present, the cellular mechanisms by which separate lineage compartments are maintained are not known. Most models have assumed that the presence or absence of selector gene expression autonomously drives the expression of compartment-specific adhesion or recognition molecules that inhibit intermixing between compartments. However, our present understanding of Hedgehog signalling from posterior to anterior cells raises some interesting alternative models based on a cell's response to signalling. We show here that anterior cells that lack smoothened, and thus the ability to receive the Hedgehog signal, no longer obey a lineage restriction in the normal position of the anterior-posterior boundary. Rather these clones extend into anatomically posterior territory, without any changes in engrailed/invected gene expression. We have also examined clones lacking both en and inv; these too show complex behaviors near the normal site of the compartment boundary, and do not always cross entirely into anatomically anterior territory. Our results suggest that compartmentalization is a complex process involving intercompartmental signalling; models based on changes in affinity or growth will be discussed.

scholarly journals Dynamics of λ-cyhalothrin disappearance and expression of selected P450 genes in bees depending on the ambient temperature

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1251-1258
Author(s):  
Bartosz Piechowicz ◽  
Marika Kobielska ◽  
Anna Koziorowska ◽  
Magdalena Podbielska ◽  
Ewa Szpyrka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Ambient Temperature ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Half Life ◽  
Degradation Rate ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Plant Protection Product ◽  
Cytochrome P450 Genes ◽  
Qpcr Method ◽  
Different Temperatures

Abstract Temperature has a significant influence on the action of pyrethroids, and their effect increases with decreasing ambient temperature. Using gas chromatography, we assessed the degradation rate of λ-cyhalothrin, active ingredients (AI) of Karate Zeon 050 CS from pyrethroid group, in bees incubated for 48 h under different temperature conditions. With RT-qPCR method, we studied expression levels of selected cytochrome P450 genes after exposure to the plant protection product (PPP). The half-life of λ-cyhalothrin decreased from 43.32 to 17.33 h in the temperature range of 21–31°C. In animals incubated at 16°C, the AI half-life was even shorter and amounted to 10.19 h. The increase in temperature increased the expression of Cyp9Q1, Cyp9Q2, and Cyp9Q3 in the group of control bees. We showed a two-fold statistically significant increase in gene expression after treatment with PPP bees. The obtained results indicate that honey bees are characterized by susceptibility to pyrethroids that vary depending on the ambient temperature. This may be due to the different expressions of genes responsible for the detoxification of these PPPs at different temperatures.

scholarly journals Transcriptional Control of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Major Royal Jelly Proteins by 20-Hydroxyecdysone

Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Winkler ◽  
Frank Sieg ◽  
Anja Buttstedt
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Juvenile Hormone ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Transcriptional Control ◽  
Royal Jelly ◽  
Adult Worker ◽  
Gene Expression Dynamics

One of the first tasks of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) during their lifetime is to feed the larval offspring. In brief, young workers (nurse bees) secrete a special food jelly that contains a large amount of unique major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs). The regulation of mrjp gene expression is not well understood, but the large upregulation in well-fed nurse bees suggests a tight repression until, or a massive induction upon, hatching of the adult worker bees. The lipoprotein vitellogenin, the synthesis of which is regulated by the two systemic hormones 20-hydroxyecdysone and juvenile hormone, is thought to be a precursor for the production of MRJPs. Thus, the regulation of mrjp expression by the said systemic hormones is likely. This study focusses on the role of 20-hydroxyecdysone by elucidating its effect on mrjp gene expression dynamics. Specifically, we tested whether 20-hydroxyecdysone displayed differential effects on various mrjps. We found that the expression of the mrjps (mrjp1–3) that were finally secreted in large amounts into the food jelly, in particular, were down regulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone treatment, with mrjp3 showing the highest repression value.

scholarly journals Screening of Differentially Expressed Microsporidia Genes from Nosema ceranae Infected Honey Bees by Suppression Subtractive Hybridization

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Zih-Ting Chang ◽  
Chong-Yu Ko ◽  
Ming-Ren Yen ◽  
Yue-Wen Chen ◽  
Yu-Shin Nai
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Differentially Expressed Genes ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Physiological Mechanism ◽  
Subtractive Hybridization ◽  
Infection Process ◽  
Nosema Ceranae ◽  
Differentially Expressed ◽  
Suppressive Subtractive Hybridization

The microsporidium Nosema ceranae is a high prevalent parasite of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). This parasite is spreading across the world into its novel host. The developmental process, and some mechanisms of N. ceranae-infected honey bees, has been studied thoroughly; however, few studies have been carried out in the mechanism of gene expression in N. ceranae during the infection process. We therefore performed the suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) approach to investigate the candidate genes of N. ceranae during its infection process. All 96 clones of infected (forward) and non-infected (reverse) library were dipped onto the membrane for hybridization. A total of 112 differentially expressed sequence tags (ESTs) had been sequenced. For the host responses, 20% of ESTs (13 ESTs, 10 genes, and 1 non-coding RNA) from the forward library and 93.6% of ESTs (44 ESTs, 28 genes) from the reverse library were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the hosts. A high percentage of DEGs involved in catalytic activity and metabolic processes revealed that the host gene expression change after N. ceranae infection might lead to an unbalance of physiological mechanism. Among the ESTs from the forward library, 75.4% ESTs (49 ESTs belonged to 24 genes) were identified as N. ceranae genes. Out of 24 N. ceranae genes, nine DEGs were subject to real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (real-time qRT-PCR) for validation. The results indicated that these genes were highly expressed during N. ceranae infection. Among nine N. ceranae genes, one N. ceranae gene (AAJ76_1600052943) showed the highest expression level after infection. These identified differentially expressed genes from this SSH could provide information about the pathological effects of N. ceranae. Validation of nine up-regulated N. ceranae genes reveal high potential for the detection of early nosemosis in the field and provide insight for further applications.

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