Abstract
Behavioral specialization is key to the success of social insects and leads to division of labor among colony members. Response thresholds to task-specific stimuli are thought to proximally regulate behavioral specialization, but their neurobiological regulation is complex and not well understood. Here, we show that response thresholds to task-relevant stimuli correspond to the specialization of three behavioral phenotypes of honeybee workers in the well-studied and important Apis mellifera and Apis cerana. Quantitative neuropeptidome comparisons suggest two tachykinin-related peptides (TRP2 and TRP3) as candidates for the modification of these response thresholds. Based on our characterization of their receptor binding and downstream signaling, we confirm a functional role of tachykinin signaling in regulating specific responsiveness of honeybee workers: TRP2 injection and RNAi-mediated downregulation cause consistent, opposite effects on responsiveness to task-specific stimuli of each behaviorally specialized phenotype but not to stimuli that are unrelated to their tasks. Thus, our study demonstrates that TRP signaling regulates the degree of task-specific responsiveness of specialized honeybee workers and may control the context specificity of behavior in animals more generally.
Highlights
32 Behavioral responses of animals to external and internal stimuli have evolved to optimize33 survival and reproduction under average circumstances [1]
2.1 The task-specific responsiveness of worker bees shows significant variations between behavioral phenotypes and the two honeybee species In our comparisons of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) of worker bees to task-specific stimuli, including sucrose solution, pollen, and larva, significant differences were found between behavioral phenotypes and the two honeybee species (Fig. 1A, Table S1 and S2)
Kruskal-Wallis tests with Bonferroni correction were used to compare the sucrose response scores (SRSs) of the three 118 behavioral phenotypes in the same species and significant differences are denoted by letters at p < 0.05
Summary
Behavioral responses of animals to external and internal stimuli have evolved to optimize. survival and reproduction under average circumstances [1]. inter-individual variability commonly cause deviations from the average, resulting in selection for context-specific and condition-dependent behavior [2,3,4]. [5] of behavior occurs in form of behavioral syndromes, differences among individuals that manifest across different contexts [6]. have been documented in many systems and some neuroendocrine mechanisms have been identified [7, 8]. General neural mechanisms that allow the sophistication of 40 behavioral repertoires by increasing context-specificity of behavioral responses remain. Behavioral modulation is important in social species in which social
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