[HN Gopher] Honeybee gene specifies collective behavior, researc...
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Honeybee gene specifies collective behavior, research shows
Author : wglb
Score : 32 points
Date : 2024-11-05 21:02 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| hwillis wrote:
| paper link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp3953
| akomtu wrote:
| "Our findings indicate a fundamental genetic program that
| determines the neuronal circuitry and behavior of worker bees"
|
| This dogma - that bees are little machines "programmed" by
| genetic code - won't lead very far. A single gene may turn off
| our auditory system because it controls production of a protein
| that's necessary for hearing, and loss of hearing would make us
| less social, but it's a wrong conclusion that the "auditory gene"
| is what "programs" our social behavior.
|
| IMO, Michael Levin's research is closer to truth. If we
| extrapolate his ideas to a whole bee colony, we could find that
| behavior of a bee hive can be changed without messing with genes,
| although some of the genes make bees receptive to "social cues"
| that makes such large scale behavior possible.
| mmooss wrote:
| How do they address that in the paper?
| aithrowawaycomm wrote:
| I don't think anyone is suggesting all bee behavior is
| explained by this - bees are highly intelligent and can learn
| all sorts of weird things about manmade objects, which can't
| possibly be explained by genetics (except that genetics built a
| powerful "algorithm"). In nature older bees are more effective
| workers because they spend their lives learning about the
| environment, including the hive itself.
|
| What _is_ explained by genetics is why honeybee workers
| immediately start working for the colony, rather than having an
| "adolescence" where non-larval bees watch older workers for an
| extended period, or why honeybee workers almost never wander
| out of the hive and try to live on their own. That side is
| clearly somewhat instinctual and must have at a genetic or
| epigenetic component.
| mglz wrote:
| Fudnamentally the genes have to code for a biologicaly system
| that is able to adapt its behaviour well enough to allow for
| dynamic behaviour while also keeping it on guiderails to make
| it function as a bee. Importantly a bee emerging from its brood
| cell immediately gets to work without any training. Where does
| this information come from if it is not genetic?
| mmooss wrote:
| In case you want to try honeybee experiments at home ... from the
| paper:
|
| https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp3953
|
| "Honeybee handling procedures
|
| The honeybees were collected from Apis mellifera carnica colonies
| (western honeybee) at the bee yard of the Heinrich-Heine
| University, Dusseldorf, Germany. Female eggs were collected from
| naturally mated queens, which were maintained in small nuc
| colonies with five combs (Holtermann, Germany). To collect female
| eggs, the queens were caged in Jenter egg-collecting cages
| (Jenter queen rearing kit, Karl Jenter GmbH, Frickenhausen,
| Germany). For the tracking, we collected newly eclosed bees (0 to
| 24 hours old) from a brood comb that was maintained in an
| incubator at 34degC. The laboratory rearing of worker bees was
| done as previously reported (19). We grafted the newly hatched
| larvae into plastic cups (#4963, Heinrich Holtermann KG, Brockel,
| Germany) with worker diet # 7 (53% royal jelly, 4% glucose, 8%
| fructose, 1% yeast extract, and 34% autoclaved water) (74). To
| obtain bees with fully developed worker characteristics, we
| experimentally determined the amount of food provided, which was
| 170 ml per larvae. The larvae were kept at 34degC and 90%
| relative humidity. The latter was generated using saturated
| solution of K2SO4 (75). Before defecation, the larvae were
| transferred onto Kimwipe papers (Delicate Task Wipers, #066664,
| Kimberly Clark) and were kept in petri dishes for 2 days at 70%
| relative humidity, which we generated using saturated NaCl2
| solutions (75). After defecation, the prepupae were separated
| into plates with 24 wells (#92424, Peter Oehmen GmBH, Essen,
| Germany) in which filter papers were placed (15 mm, grade 413;
| VWR, International GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany). Once they started
| walking, they were marked and maintained in small cages together
| with eclosed wt workers coming from colonies (#20104;
| Imkereifachhandel Jasniak, Trossin, Germany) in which water and
| sugar paste supplemented with pollen (#7032; Heinrich Holtermann
| KG, Brockel, Germany) was provided. To obtain myrGFP-mutated
| worker or queen bees, we reared the queens as described (17, 76).
| To obtain myrGFP worker bees, 12- to 19-day-old myrGFP queens
| were inseminated with wt drones using standard insemination
| techniques. The queens were treated with CO2 1 day before
| insemination. Inseminated queens were maintained in small nucs
| ("Kieler Begattungskasten," Holtermann, Germany) with wt worker
| bees. The nucs were kept in a containment so that mutated animals
| were not able to escape into nature. To obtain newly eclosed
| dsxmyrGFP/+ worker bees, combs with capped cells were maintained
| in an incubator at 34degC."
| mmooss wrote:
| An interesting insight led to their research (from the paper):
| https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp3953
|
| (First, some interesting background:)
|
| _" The evolutionary transition from solitary to social living in
| vertebrates and invertebrates led to sophisticated social
| behaviors. During the past 50 to 150 million years of evolution,
| sociality in some species became so elaborate that individuals in
| the group forego reproduction and changed their behavioral
| performance to embrace collective behavior, while others
| specialize in reproduction leading to the development of two
| castes, queen and workers (1, 2). From behavioral activities of
| hundreds and sometimes ten-thousands of worker individuals, new
| properties have emerged at the collective level such as shared
| brood care, warfare, collective thermoregulation, nest building,
| and farming, which contributed to the spectacular ecological
| success of the eusocial species (2). The collective tasks and
| functions cannot be performed by any single individual alone.
| They require a group and inherited behavioral patterns performed
| by individual workers."_
|
| (And later ... [I added the paragraph breaks])
|
| _" In advanced eusocial insect colonies, sophisticated innate
| behaviors establishing sociality are limited to the worker caste,
| not to queens. This led to our hypothesis that a dedicated
| developmental program for social behaviors will be found in the
| pathway determining the differentiation into the worker castes.
| ...
|
| Dsx proteins are part of the structurally and functionally
| conserved doublesex and mab-3-related transcription factor family
| (Dmrt) and are critical for sex-specific differentiation
| throughout the animal kingdom (39, 40) and sexual behaviors in
| insects (9, 41). DsxF is required for the worker-characteristic
| differentiation of the worker ovary, suggesting that DsxF is a
| component of the worker caste developmental program (19).
|
| The worker bees do not perform sexual behaviors. However, we
| found that dsx is also expressed in the worker's brain (42)
| suggesting that the gene may have another role unrelated to
| sexual reproduction but related to promoting social living
| behaviors in the worker caste."_
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