Faculty Opinions recommendation of Limits on volume changes in the mushroom bodies of the honey bee brain.

The European honey bee is a model organism for studying social behaviors. Comprehensive analyses focusing on the differential expression profiles of genes between the brains of nurse bees and foragers, or in the mushroom bodies—the brain structure related to learning and memory, and multimodal sensory integration—has identified candidate genes related to honey bee behaviors. Despite accumulating knowledge on the expression profiles of genes related to honey bee behaviors, it remains unclear whether these genes actually regulate social behaviors in the honey bee, in part because of the scarcity of genetic manipulation methods available for application to the honey bee. In this review, we describe the genetic methods applied to studies of the honey bee, ranging from classical forward genetics to recently developed gene modification methods using transposon and CRISPR/Cas9. We then discuss future functional analyses using these genetic methods targeting genes identified by the preceding research. Because no particular genes or neurons unique to social insects have been found yet, further exploration of candidate genes/neurons correlated with sociality through comprehensive analyses of mushroom bodies in the aculeate species can provide intriguing targets for functional analyses, as well as insight into the molecular and neural bases underlying social behaviors.

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Volume and density of microglomeruli in the honey bee mushroom bodies do not predict performance on a foraging task

Developmental Neurobiology ◽

10.1002/dneu.22492 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 77 (9) ◽

pp. 1057-1071 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Byron N. Van Nest ◽

Ashley E. Wagner ◽

Glen S. Marrs ◽

Susan E. Fahrbach

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Mushroom Bodies ◽

Foraging Task

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Parallel mechanisms of visual memory formation across distinct regions of the honey bee brain

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.242292 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Arián Avalos ◽

Ian M. Traniello ◽

Eddie Pérez Claudio ◽

Tugrul Giray

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Behavioral Ecology ◽

Visual Memory ◽

Visual Learning ◽

Memory Formation ◽

Higher Order ◽

Sensory Transduction ◽

Floral Resources ◽

Mushroom Bodies ◽

Optic Lobes

Visual learning is vital to the behavioral ecology of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). Honey bee workers forage for floral resources, a behavior that requires the learning and long-term memory of visual landmarks, but how these memories are mapped to the brain remains poorly understood. To address this gap in our understanding, we collected bees that successfully learned visual associations in a conditioned aversion paradigm and compared gene expression correlates of memory formation in the mushroom bodies, a higher-order sensory integration center classically thought to contribute to learning, as well as the optic lobes, the primary visual neuropil responsible for sensory transduction of visual information. We quantitated expression of CREB and CaMKii, two classical genetic markers of learning and fen-1, a gene specifically associated with punishment learning in vertebrates. As expected, we report substantial involvement of the mushroom bodies for all three markers but additionally demonstrate the involvement of the optic lobes across a similar time course. Our findings imply the molecular involvement of a sensory neuropil during visual associative learning parallel to a higher-order brain region, furthering our understanding of how a tiny brain processes environmental signals.

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