School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, United States.
J Insect Physiol. 2010 Apr;56(4):422-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2009.11.018. Epub 2009 Dec 8.
Determining the specific molecular pathways through which dopamine affects behavior has been complicated by the presence of multiple dopamine receptor subtypes that couple to different second messenger pathways. The observation of freely moving adult bees in an arena was used to investigate the role of dopamine signaling in regulating the behavior of the honey bee. Dopamine or the dopamine receptor antagonist flupenthixol was injected into the hemolymph of worker honey bees. Significant differences between treated and control bees were seen for all behaviors (walking, stopped, upside down, grooming, flying and fanning), and behavioral shifts were dependent on drug dosage and time after injection. To examine the role of dopamine signaling through a specific dopamine receptor in the brain, RNA interference was used to reduce expression levels of a D1-like receptor, AmDOP2. Injection of Amdop2 dsRNA into the mushroom bodies reduced the levels of Amdop2 mRNA and produced significant changes in the amount of time honey bees spent performing specific behaviors with reductions in time spent walking offset by increases in grooming or time spent stopped. Taken together these results establish that dopamine plays an important role in regulating motor behavior of the honey bee.
确定多巴胺通过哪些特定的分子途径影响行为一直很复杂，因为存在多种多巴胺受体亚型，它们与不同的第二信使途径偶联。通过在竞技场中观察自由移动的成年蜜蜂，研究了多巴胺信号在调节蜜蜂行为中的作用。将多巴胺或多巴胺受体拮抗剂氟哌噻吨注射到工蜂的血淋巴中。与对照组相比，处理组的所有行为（行走、停止、倒立、梳理、飞行和扇动）都存在显著差异，并且行为变化取决于药物剂量和注射后的时间。为了研究通过大脑中的特定多巴胺受体进行多巴胺信号传递的作用，使用 RNA 干扰降低了一种 D1 样受体 AmDOP2 的表达水平。将 Amdop2 dsRNA 注入蘑菇体降低了 Amdop2 mRNA 的水平，并导致蜜蜂执行特定行为的时间发生了显著变化，行走时间减少，梳理或停止时间增加。这些结果表明，多巴胺在调节蜜蜂的运动行为中起着重要作用。
