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Curr Biol

Title:		Learning of a Mimic Odor within Beehives Improves Pollination Service Efficiency in a Commercial Crop
Author(s):		Farina WM; Arenas A; Diaz PC; Susic Martin C; Estravis Barcala MC;
Address:		"Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Instituto de Fisiologia, Biologia Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: walter@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar. Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Instituto de Fisiologia, Biologia Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina"
Journal Title:		Curr Biol
Year:		2020
Volume:		20200917
Issue:		21
Page Number:		4284 - 4290
DOI:		10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.018
ISSN/ISBN:		1879-0445 (Electronic) 0960-9822 (Linking)
Abstract:		"The growing global demand for pollination services leads producers to consider new strategies in pollinator management to improve its efficiency in agroecosystems [1-3]. Central place foragers, like honeybees, learn floral cues not only in the field but also inside the nest, where resource cues introduced into the hive improve foraging by guiding bees toward the learned stimuli [4]. In this regard, attempts to condition bees with crop-odor-scented food produced ambiguous results and lacked yield measurements [5-7]. To deepen our understanding of the use of odors as part of a precision pollination strategy, we developed a simple synthetic odorant mixture that bees generalized with the natural floral scent of sunflower for hybrid seed production, an economically important and highly pollinator-dependent crop [8]. Encompassing different experimental approaches, our results show that feeding colonies food scented with the sunflower mimic (SM) odor enabled the establishment of olfactory memories that biased bees to the sunflower crop. The offering of a rewarded odor mimicking the sunflower floral fragrance promoted higher foraging activity, increased the proportion of dances advertising the target inflorescences and reduced delays in dance onset, positively affected the density of bees on the crop, and increased yields from 29% to 57% in different sunflower hybrids. This study highlights the role of olfactory learning within the social context of the hive to bias foraging preferences in a novel agricultural environment and suggest that improvements in the tested parameters were due to bees anticipated response to the sunflower scent"
Keywords:		"Animals Bees/*physiology Behavior, Animal/physiology Crop Production/*methods Feeding Behavior/physiology Food Preferences/physiology Helianthus/*physiology Inflorescence/chemistry Learning/*physiology Odorants Olfactory Perception/physiology Pollination/;"
Notes:		"MedlineFarina, Walter M Arenas, Andres Diaz, Paula C Susic Martin, Cinthia Estravis Barcala, M Cecilia eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2020/09/19 Curr Biol. 2020 Nov 2; 30(21):4284-4290.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.018. Epub 2020 Sep 17"