Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, CNRS (UMR 5169), University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, CNRS, IRD (UMR 5174), University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Eur J Neurosci. 2021 Jul;54(2):4417-4444. doi: 10.1111/ejn.15265. Epub 2021 May 14.
Understanding the neural principles governing taste perception in species that bear economic importance or serve as research models for other sensory modalities constitutes a strategic goal. Such is the case of the honey bee (Apis mellifera), which is environmentally and socioeconomically important, given its crucial role as pollinator agent in agricultural landscapes and which has served as a traditional model for visual and olfactory neurosciences and for research on communication, navigation, and learning and memory. Here we review the current knowledge on honey bee gustatory receptors to provide an integrative view of peripheral taste detection in this insect, highlighting specificities and commonalities with other insect species. We describe behavioral and electrophysiological responses to several tastant categories and relate these responses, whenever possible, to known molecular receptor mechanisms. Overall, we adopted an evolutionary and comparative perspective to understand the neural principles of honey bee taste and define key questions that should be answered in future gustatory research centered on this insect.
了解在具有经济重要性或作为其他感觉模式研究模型的物种中控制味觉感知的神经原理是一个战略目标。这种情况适用于蜜蜂（Apis mellifera），它在环境和社会经济方面都很重要，因为它作为农业景观中的传粉媒介具有关键作用，并且一直是视觉和嗅觉神经科学以及通讯、导航以及学习和记忆研究的传统模型。在这里，我们回顾了蜜蜂味觉受体的现有知识，以提供对这种昆虫外周味觉检测的综合观点，突出了与其他昆虫物种的特异性和共性。我们描述了对几种味觉剂类别的行为和电生理反应，并尽可能将这些反应与已知的分子受体机制联系起来。总的来说，我们采用了进化和比较的观点来理解蜜蜂味觉的神经原理，并确定了未来以这种昆虫为中心的味觉研究中应回答的关键问题。
