Age-dependent and task-related volume changes in the mushroom bodies of visually guided desert ants, Cataglyphis bicolor
Age-dependent and task-related volume changes in the mushroom bodies of visually guided desert ants, Cataglyphis bicolor
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DOI：
10.1002/neu.20235
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发表时间：
2006-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Wehner, Ruedigner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kuehn-Buehlmann, Simone;Wehner, Ruedigner
Cataglyphis 属的沙漠蚂蚁是熟练的长途导航者，使用各种视觉导航工具，例如天窗罗盘和地标引导装置。然而，这个导航工具包发挥作用的时间非常短，因为 Cataglyphis 觅食者的平均寿命只有大约 6 天。在这里，我们通过使用免疫组织化学、共焦显微镜和三维重建软件表明，即使在成年期的短暂时期，与年龄匹配的暗饲养动物相比，Cataglyphis 的蘑菇体尺寸也显着增加，尤其是视觉输入区域（即衣领）。这种与任务相关的增长依赖于蘑菇体大小因年龄而小得多的增长。由于 Cataglyphis 工蚁表现出的体型大小差异，我们在整个过程中使用了异速生长分析，结果表明，与大型动物相比，小型动物的蘑菇体尺寸与任务相关的增长要大得多。就好像完成蚂蚁的导航任务所需的蘑菇体尺寸有一个上限。 (c) 2006 年 Wiley 期刊公司
Desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis are skillful long-distance navigators employing a variety of visual navigational tools such as skylight compasses and landmark guidance mechanisms. However, the time during which this navigational toolkit comes into play is extremely short, as the average lifetime of a Cataglyphis forager lasts for only about 6 days. Here we show, by using immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, and three-dimensional reconstruction software, that even during this short period of adult life, Cataglyphis exhibits a remarkable increase in the size of its mushroom bodies, especially of the visual input region, the collar, if compared to age-matched dark-reared animals. This task-related increase rides on a much smaller age-dependent increase of the size of the mushroom bodies. Due to the variation in body size exhibited by Cataglyphis workers we use allometric analyses throughout and show that small animals exhibit considerably larger task-related increases in the sizes of their mushroom bodies than larger animals do. It is as if there were an upper limit of mushroom body size required for accomplishing the ant's navigational tasks. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.