Activity-dependent survival of odorant receptor neurons in ants

Sieriebriennikov, Bogdan; Sieber, Kayli R; Kolumba, Olena; Mlejnek, Jakub; Jafari, Shadi; Yan, Hua

doi:10.1101/2023.10.04.560961

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 80 publications

(115 reference statements)

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“…There are several possible explanations for the opposite effects of aging on responses to alarm pheromones vs. general odorants in PGb and PGa. Co-expression of odorant receptors and ionotropic receptors in the same OSNs has been documented in flies, mosquitos, and ants ( 21–23 ), and our results are consistent with a model where PGb and PGa are each associated with two different receptors responsible for detecting general odorants vs. alarm pheromones. The different classes of receptors could be up- or down-regulated in opposite directions during aging ( 6 ), leading to higher correlation between the presence of alarm pheromone in the local environment and neural activity in the OSNs innervating PGb and PGa.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

Hart,

Lopes,

Frank

et al. 2024

Preprint

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While the neural basis of age-related decline has been extensively studied (1–3), less is known about changes in neural function during the pre-senescent stages of adulthood. Adult neural plasticity is likely a key factor in social insect age polyethism, where individuals perform different tasks as they age and divide labor in an age-dependent manner (4–9). Primarily, workers transition from nursing to foraging tasks (5, 10), become more aggressive, and more readily display alarm behavior (11–16) as they get older. While it is unknown how these behavioral dynamics are neurally regulated, they could partially be generated by altered salience of behaviorally relevant stimuli (4, 6, 7). Here, we investigated how odor coding in the antennal lobe (AL) changes with age in the context of alarm pheromone communication in the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi) (17). Similar to other social insects (11, 12, 16), older ants responded more rapidly to alarm pheromones, the chemical signals for danger. Using whole-AL calcium imaging (18), we then mapped odor representations for five general odorants and two alarm pheromones in young and old ants. Alarm pheromones were represented sparsely at all ages. However, alarm pheromone responses within individual glomeruli changed with age, either increasing or decreasing. Only two glomeruli became sensitized to alarm pheromones with age, while at the same time becoming desensitized to general odorants. Our results suggest that the heightened response to alarm pheromones in older ants occurs via increased sensitivity in these two core glomeruli, illustrating the importance of sensory modulation in social insect division of labor and age-associated behavioral plasticity.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

Hart,

Lopes,

Frank

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are several possible explanations for the opposite effects of aging on responses to alarm pheromones versus general odorants in PG b and PG a . Co-expression of odorant receptors and ionotropic receptors in the same OSNs has been documented in flies, mosquitos, and ants, 21 – 23 and our results are consistent with a model where PG b and PG a are each associated with two different receptors responsible for detecting general odorants versus alarm pheromones. The different classes of receptors could be up- or downregulated in opposite directions during aging, 6 leading to higher correlation between the presence of alarm pheromone in the local environment and neural activity in the OSNs innervating PG b and PG a .…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%