Comparison of learning and memory of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera

Qin, Qiuhong; He, Xingjian; Tian, Li; Zhang, Shao Wu; Zeng, Zhen

doi:10.1007/s00359-012-0747-9

Cited by 38 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Foragers of Ac may make more foraging trips per day than foragers of Am (no data yet). Ac is known to perform significantly better in learning on both color and grating patterns than Am [23], so perhaps they can locate sparse nectar resources more easily. Another difference may be metabolic rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Sucrose Responsiveness in Apis mellifera and A. cerana Foragers

Yang

Kuang²,

Wang

et al. 2013

PLoS ONE

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In the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, pollen foragers have a higher sucrose responsiveness than nectar foragers when tested using a proboscis extension response (PER) assay. In addition, Africanized honey bees have a higher sucrose responsiveness than European honey bees. Based on the biology of the Eastern honey bee, A. cerana, we hypothesized that A. cerana should also have a higher responsiveness to sucrose than A. mellifera. To test this hypothesis, we compared the sucrose thresholds of pollen foragers and nectar foragers in both A. cerana and A. mellifera in Fujian Province, China. Pollen foragers were more responsive to sucrose than nectar foragers in both species, consistent with previous studies. However, contrary to our hypothesis, A. mellifera was more responsive than A. cerana. We also demonstrated that this higher sucrose responsiveness in A. mellifera was not due to differences in the colony environment by co-fostering two species of bees in the same mixed-species colonies. Because A. mellifera foragers were more responsive to sucrose, we predicted that their nectar foragers should bring in less concentrated nectar compared to that of A. cerana. However, we found no differences between the two species. We conclude that A. cerana shows a different pattern in sucrose responsiveness from that of Africanized bees. There may be other mechanisms that enable A. cerana to perform well in areas with sparse nectar resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Sucrose Responsiveness in Apis mellifera and A. cerana Foragers

Yang

Kuang²,

Wang

et al. 2013

PLoS ONE

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“…When the choice frequencies of honeybees for the “positive” pattern remained stable at above 80%, the training was ended. As this study continues our previous behavioral studies of learning and memory in honeybees, details of the maze experiments can be found in our previous paper (Qin et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The integrative analysis of microRNA and mRNA expression in Apis mellifera following maze‐based visual pattern learning

et al. 2014

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The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a social insect with strong sensory capacity and diverse behavioral repertoire and is recognized as a good model organism for studying the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. In this study, we analyzed the changes in microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) following maze-based visual learning using next-generation small RNA sequencing and Solexa/lllumina Digital Gene Expression tag profiling (DGE). For small RNA sequencing, we obtained 13 367 770 and 13 132 655 clean tags from the maze and control groups, respectively. A total of 40 differentially expressed known miRNAs were detected between these two samples, and all of them were up-regulated in the maze group compared to the control group. For DGE, 5 681 320 and 5 939 855 clean tags were detected from the maze and control groups, respectively. There were a total of 388 differentially expressed genes between these two samples, with 45 genes up-regulated and 343 genes down-regulated in the maze group, compared to the control group. Additionally, the expression levels of 10 differentially expressed genes were confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and the expression trends of eight of them were consistent with the DGE result, although the degree of change was lower in amplitude. The integrative analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression showed that, among the 40 differentially expressed known miRNAs and 388 differentially expressed genes, 60 pairs of miRNA/mRNA were identified as co-expressed in our present study. These results suggest that both miRNA and mRNA may play a pivotal role in the process of learning and memory in honeybees. Our sequencing data provide comprehensive miRNA and gene expression information for maze-based visual learning, which will facilitate understanding of the molecular mechanisms of honeybee learning and memory.

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“…Compared with A. mellifera, A. cerana has actually been shown to learn better in a controlled laboratory setting (Chen 2001;Qin et al 2012). Wang and Tan (2014) showed that A. cerana is as amenable as A. mellifera to the study of olfactory learning using the PER assay.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Differential protein expression analysis following olfactory learning in Apis cerana

et al. 2015

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Studies of olfactory learning in honeybees have helped to elucidate the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. In this study, protein expression changes following olfactory learning in Apis cerana were investigated using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) technology. A total of 2406 proteins were identified from the trained and untrained groups. Among these proteins, 147 were differentially expressed, with 87 up-regulated and 60 down-regulated in the trained group compared with the untrained group. These results suggest that the differentially expressed proteins may be involved in the regulation of olfactory learning and memory in A. cerana. The iTRAQ data can provide information on the global protein expression patterns associated with olfactory learning, which will facilitate our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory of honeybees.

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Comparison of learning and memory of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera

Cited by 38 publications

References 36 publications

Comparative Sucrose Responsiveness in Apis mellifera and A. cerana Foragers

Comparative Sucrose Responsiveness in Apis mellifera and A. cerana Foragers

The integrative analysis of microRNA and mRNA expression in Apis mellifera following maze‐based visual pattern learning

Differential protein expression analysis following olfactory learning in Apis cerana

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