Abstract
The honeybee is a social insect that exhibits various social behaviors. To elucidate the neural basis of honeybee behavior, we detected neural activity in freely-moving honeybee workers using an immediate early gene (IEG) that is expressed in a neural activity-dependent manner. In European honeybees (Apis mellifera), we identified a novel nuclear non-coding RNA, termed kakusei, as the first insect IEG, and revealed the neural activity pattern in foragers. In addition, we isolated a homologue of kakusei, termed Acks, from the Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana), and detected active neurons in workers fighting with the giant hornet.
Highlights
The European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) is a eusocial insect that organizes a highly sophisticated society (Figure 1) [1,2]
Using the differential display method, we successfully identified a novel immediate early gene (IEG), termed kakusei (“awakening” in Japanese), whose expression is strongly induced by seizures that can be induced by awakening workers from anesthesia [14]
With Northern blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analyses, we revealed that, in addition to neural activity-inducible kakusei transcripts, multiple variants are constitutively expressed in the honeybee brains independent of neural activity [17]
Summary
The European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) is a eusocial insect that organizes a highly sophisticated society (Figure 1) [1,2]. We discuss the isolation of a homologue of kakusei, termed Acks, from the Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana), and detection of neurons that are active in the workers fighting with the giant hornet, the natural enemy of Japanese honeybees [18]. 2. Identification of a Novel Non-Coding IEG, kakusei, which Can Be Used as a Marker to Visualize Neural Activity in the Honeybee Brain
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