McNeill M S, Kapheim K M, Brockmann A, McGill T A W, Robinson G E
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Genes Brain Behav. 2016 Mar;15(3):305-17. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12275. Epub 2016 Jan 8.
The ability of honey bees to evaluate differences in food type and value is crucial for colony success, but these assessments are made by individuals who bring food to the hive, eating little, if any, of it themselves. We tested the hypothesis that responses to food type (pollen or nectar) and value involve different subsets of brain regions, and genes responsive to food. mRNA in situ hybridization of c-jun revealed that brain regions responsive to differences in food type were mostly different from regions responsive to differences in food value, except those dorsal and lateral to the mushroom body calyces, which responded to all three. Transcriptomic profiles of the mushroom bodies generated by RNA sequencing gave the following results: (1) responses to differences in food type or value included a subset of molecular pathways involved in the response to food reward; (2) genes responsive to food reward, food type and food value were enriched for (the Gene Ontology categories) mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum activity; (3) genes responsive to only food and food type were enriched for regulation of transcription and translation; and (4) genes responsive to only food and food value were enriched for regulation of neuronal signaling. These results reveal how activities necessary for colony survival are channeled through the reward system of individual honey bees.
蜜蜂评估食物类型和价值差异的能力对蜂群的成功至关重要，但这些评估是由将食物带回蜂巢的个体进行的，它们自己很少食用（如果食用的话）。我们测试了以下假设：对食物类型（花粉或花蜜）和价值的反应涉及不同的脑区子集以及对食物有反应的基因。c-jun的mRNA原位杂交显示，对食物类型差异有反应的脑区大多与对食物价值差异有反应的脑区不同，除了蘑菇体花萼背侧和外侧的区域，这些区域对所有三种情况都有反应。通过RNA测序生成的蘑菇体转录组图谱给出了以下结果：（1）对食物类型或价值差异的反应包括参与食物奖励反应的分子途径子集；（2）对食物奖励、食物类型和食物价值有反应的基因在（基因本体类别）线粒体和内质网活性方面富集；（3）仅对食物和食物类型有反应的基因在转录和翻译调控方面富集；（4）仅对食物和食物价值有反应的基因在神经元信号调控方面富集。这些结果揭示了蜂群生存所需的活动是如何通过单个蜜蜂的奖励系统进行传导的。
