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

Kennedy, Anissa; Peng, Tianfei; Glaser, Simone M.; Linn, Melissa; Foitzik, Susanne; Grüter, Christoph

doi:10.1111/mec.15893

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 133 publications

(196 reference statements)

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“…However, in the context of our study, what is important to note is that the opportunity for social learning did not have the same effect on all bees-the negative relationship between performance in the two tasks shows that the ones who did better in one task did worse in the other, which shows that there is interindividual variability in the use of social information. This difference in performance could be related to the salience or sensitivity to a social cue and individual variation regarding it based on underlying neurophysiological mechanisms [27,42,43]. Given the higher cost for an individual to acquire information on its own, such variation could also be related to energetic differences among individuals since metabolic rate has been widely considered as a fundamental variable underlying slow-fast phenotypic differences [7,11], including those in honeybees [44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees

Tait

Naug

2022

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Slow–fast differences in cognition among individuals have been proposed to be an outcome of the speed–accuracy trade-off in decision-making. Based on the different costs associated with acquiring information via individual and social learning, we hypothesized that slow–fast cognitive differences would also be tied to the adoption of these different learning modes. Since foragers in honeybee colonies likely have both these information acquisition modes available to them, we chose to test them for interindividual differences in individual and social learning. By measuring performance on a learning task with and without a social cue and quantifying learning rate and maximum accuracy in these two tasks, our results show the existence of a speed–accuracy trade-off in both the individual and the social learning contexts. However, the trade-off is steeper during individual learning, which was slower than social learning but led to higher accuracy. Most importantly, our results also show that bees that attained high accuracy on the individual learning task had low accuracy on the social learning task and vice versa . We discuss how these two information acquisition strategies tie to slow–fast differences in cognitive phenotypes and how they might contribute to division of labour and social behaviour.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees

Tait

Naug

2022

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…More functional approaches are needed to move beyond correlation and investigate whether a causal link exists between the expression levels of the genes that we identified and the performance of dance behaviour. For example, a recent study has revealed that gene expression associated with sensory perception rather than high cognitive functions is more important for bees following a dance when deciding whether to use personal information vs. social cues (the waggle dance) when engaging in the next foraging trip (Kennedy et al, 2021): it could be tested whether sensory perception has a role in the regulation of dance behaviour as well, by analysing gene expression in other brain parts such as the antennal or optic lobes that are clearly linked to the processing of sensory inputs. We are aware that other internal or external factors could contribute to define the patterns of gene expression in the honeybees that we analysed, as the brain is a complex organ that responds to a wide range of factors and stimuli that we could not control totally, such as bee age or number of dances performed, just to mention a few.…”

Section: Rfementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this, we still do not have a complete picture of how the waggle dance is regulated at the brain level. Pioneering studies have started to reveal some of the key players at the levels of molecules (Barron et al, 2007;Kennedy et al, 2021;Linn et al, 2020), cell types (Kiya et al, 2007) and genetic pathways (Sen Sarma et al, 2009) associated with dance communication, but it is unclear what genes in the honeybee brain trigger the performance of dance behaviour once activated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Machine learning models identify gene predictors of waggle dance behaviour in honeybees

Veiner

Morimoto

Leadbeater

et al. 2022

Molecular Ecology Resources

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“…Additionally, by recording the behaviour and spatial position of the ants shortly before sampling, we would like to gain insights into whether and how gene expression in the brain or antenna parallels behavioural changes in the hosts. While many studies focus on transcriptomic changes in the central nervous system, i.e., the brain, which not only processes information from the sensory organs but also directly controls behaviour and thus largely reflects an individual's behavioural phenotype (Robinson et al, 2008), recent work suggests that also the peripheral nervous system, the antennae, play a major role in determining an individual's behavioural phenotype (Caminer et al, 2023; Kennedy et al, 2021). Thus, we decided to sequence both of these tissues to additionally unravel the molecular basis of behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain and antennal transcriptomes of host ants reveal potential links between behaviour and the functioning of socially parasitic colonies

et al. 2023

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Insect social parasites are characterized by exploiting the hosts' social behaviour. Why exactly hosts direct their caring behaviour towards these parasites and their offspring remains largely unstudied. One hypothesis is that hosts do not perceive their social environment as altered and accept the parasitic colony as their own. We used the ant Leptothorax acervorum, host of the dulotic, obligate social parasite Harpagoxenus sublaevis, to shed light on molecular mechanisms underlying behavioural exploitation by contrasting tissue‐specific transcriptomes in young host workers. Host pupae were experimentally (re‐)introduced into fragments of their original, another conspecific, heterospecific or parasitic colony. Brain and antennal mRNA was extracted and sequenced from adult ants after they had lived in the experimental colony for at least 50 days after eclosion. The resulting transcriptomes of L. acervorum revealed that ants were indeed affected by their social environment. Host brain transcriptomes were altered by the presence of social parasites, suggesting that the parasitic environment influences brain activity, which may be linked to behavioural changes. Transcriptional activity in the antennae changed most with the presence of unrelated individuals, regardless of whether they were conspecifics or parasites. This suggests early priming of odour perception, which was further supported by sensory perception of odour as an enriched function of differentially expressed genes. Furthermore, gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain corresponded to ant worker behaviour before sampling. Our study demonstrated that the exploitation of social behaviours by brood parasites correlates with transcriptomic alterations in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

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

Cited by 12 publications

References 133 publications

Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees

Interindividual variation in the use of social information during learning in honeybees

Machine learning models identify gene predictors of waggle dance behaviour in honeybees

Brain and antennal transcriptomes of host ants reveal potential links between behaviour and the functioning of socially parasitic colonies

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