Title: | Sparse and stereotyped encoding implicates a core glomerulus for ant alarm behavior |
Author(s): | Hart T; Frank DD; Lopes LE; Olivos-Cisneros L; Lacy KD; Trible W; Ritger A; Valdes-Rodriguez S; Kronauer DJC; |
Address: | "Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA. Electronic address: thart@rockefeller.edu. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship Program, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, NW Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Marine Science Research Building, Bldg. 520, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA. Electronic address: dkronauer@rockefeller.edu" |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.cell.2023.05.025 |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1097-4172 (Electronic) 0092-8674 (Print) 0092-8674 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "Ants communicate via large arrays of pheromones and possess expanded, highly complex olfactory systems, with antennal lobes in the brain comprising up to approximately 500 glomeruli. This expansion implies that odors could activate hundreds of glomeruli, which would pose challenges for higher-order processing. To study this problem, we generated transgenic ants expressing the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP in olfactory sensory neurons. Using two-photon imaging, we mapped complete glomerular responses to four ant alarm pheromones. Alarm pheromones robustly activated =6 glomeruli, and activity maps for the three pheromones inducing panic alarm in our study species converged on a single glomerulus. These results demonstrate that, rather than using broadly tuned combinatorial encoding, ants employ precise, narrowly tuned, and stereotyped representations of alarm pheromones. The identification of a central sensory hub glomerulus for alarm behavior suggests that a simple neural architecture is sufficient to translate pheromone perception into behavioral outputs" |
Keywords: | "Animals *Ants/genetics Brain/physiology Odorants Pheromones Smell/physiology Behavior, Animal GCaMP Ooceraea biroi antennal lobe calcium imaging chemosensation clonal raider ant communication odor coding olfaction pheromone;" |
Notes: | "MedlineHart, Taylor Frank, Dominic D Lopes, Lindsey E Olivos-Cisneros, Leonora Lacy, Kip D Trible, Waring Ritger, Amelia Valdes-Rodriguez, Stephany Kronauer, Daniel J C eng R01 NS123899/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ R35 GM127007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ 2023/06/16 Cell. 2023 Jul 6; 186(14):3079-3094.e17. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.05.025. Epub 2023 Jun 14" |