Lagisz Malgorzata, Mercer Alison R, de Mouzon Charlotte, Santos Luana L S, Nakagawa Shinichi
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
School of BEES, Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
Behav Genet. 2016 Mar;46(2):242-51. doi: 10.1007/s10519-015-9749-z. Epub 2015 Sep 26.
Octopamine- and dopamine-based neuromodulatory systems play a critical role in learning and learning-related behaviour in insects. To further our understanding of these systems and resulting phenotypes, we quantified DNA sequence variations at six loci coding octopamine-and dopamine-receptors and their association with aversive and appetitive learning traits in a population of honeybees. We identified 79 polymorphic sequence markers (mostly SNPs and a few insertions/deletions) located within or close to six candidate genes. Intriguingly, we found that levels of sequence variation in the protein-coding regions studied were low, indicating that sequence variation in the coding regions of receptor genes critical to learning and memory is strongly selected against. Non-coding and upstream regions of the same genes, however, were less conserved and sequence variations in these regions were weakly associated with between-individual differences in learning-related traits. While these associations do not directly imply a specific molecular mechanism, they suggest that the cross-talk between dopamine and octopamine signalling pathways may influence olfactory learning and memory in the honeybee.
