| Title: | Cooperative defence operates by social modulation of biogenic amine levels in the honey bee brain |
| Author(s): | Nouvian M; Mandal S; Jamme C; Claudianos C; d'Ettorre P; Reinhard J; Barron AB; Giurfa M; |
| Address: | "Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Integrative (CBI), Universite?n de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France morgane.nouvian@uq.net.au. Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Integrative (CBI), Universite?n de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France. School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3600, Australia. Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology, University of Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cite, 93430 Villetaneuse, France. Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Integrative (CBI), Universite?n de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France martin.giurfa@univ-tlse3.fr" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1471-2954 (Electronic) 0962-8452 (Print) 0962-8452 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The defence of a society often requires that some specialized members coordinate to repel a threat at personal risk. This is especially true for honey bee guards, which defend the hive and may sacrifice their lives upon stinging. Central to this cooperative defensive response is the sting alarm pheromone, which has isoamyl acetate (IAA) as its main component. Although this defensive behaviour has been well described, the neural mechanisms triggered by IAA to coordinate stinging have long remained unknown. Here we show that IAA upregulates brain levels of serotonin and dopamine, thereby increasing the likelihood of an individual bee to attack and sting. Pharmacological enhancement of the levels of both amines induces higher defensive responsiveness, while decreasing them via antagonists decreases stinging. Our results thus uncover the neural mechanism by which an alarm pheromone recruits individuals to attack and repel a threat, and suggest that the alarm pheromone of honey bees acts on their response threshold rather than as a direct trigger" |
| Keywords: | Animals Bees/*physiology Biogenic Amines/*metabolism Brain/metabolism Defense Mechanisms Pentanols/*metabolism Pheromones/*metabolism Social Behavior alarm pheromone defence dopamine honey bee serotonin; |
| Notes: | "MedlineNouvian, Morgane Mandal, Souvik Jamme, Charlene Claudianos, Charles d'Ettorre, Patrizia Reinhard, Judith Barron, Andrew B Giurfa, Martin eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2018/01/26 Proc Biol Sci. 2018 Jan 31; 285(1871):20172653. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2653" |
