Abstract
Sleep plays an essential role in both neural and energetic homeostasis of animals. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) manifest the sleep state as a reduction in muscle tone and antennal movements, which is susceptible to physical or chemical disturbances. This social insect is one of the most important pollinators in agricultural ecosystems, being exposed to a great variety of agrochemicals, which might affect its sleep behaviour. The intake of glyphosate (GLY), the herbicide most widely used worldwide, impairs learning, gustatory responsiveness and navigation in honey bees. In general, these cognitive abilities are linked with the amount and quality of sleep. Furthermore, it has been reported that animals exposed to sleep disturbances show impairments in both metabolism and memory consolidation. Consequently, we assessed the sleep pattern of bees fed with a sugar solution containing GLY (0, 25, 50 and 100 ng) by quantifying their antennal activity during the scotophase. We found that the ingestion of 50 ng of GLY decreased both antennal activity and sleep bout frequency. This sleep deepening after GLY intake could be explained as a consequence of the regenerative function of sleep and the metabolic stress induced by the herbicide.
Highlights
Sleep plays an essential role in both neural and energetic homeostasis of animals
In colony and laboratory assays, three sleep stages have been described in honey bees, to those reported for m ammals[9,10,11,16]
Notwithstanding, it is important to stress that honey bees exposed to food containing 50 ng of GLY showed a marginal significance to large dominant periods with average durations of 13.5 ± 7.01 min
Summary
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) manifest the sleep state as a reduction in muscle tone and antennal movements, which is susceptible to physical or chemical disturbances. In honey bees (Apis mellifera), sleep can be unequivocally deduced from the movement of their antennae and their body posture[9,10,11] Their electrophysiological brain activity correlates well with their resting behaviour[12,13,14]. It has been shown that deprivation or disturbances of sleep impair the encoding of information and memory consolidation[8,17,18] They affect the precision of the waggle dance[19] and navigation abilities[8]. Caffeine promotes wakefulness in fruit flies[21], whereas anaesthetics promote resting behaviour in honey bees[22]
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