Neuroethological bases of pheromonal sex communication in male honeybees (drones), Apis mellifera

世界各地的粮食生产依赖于农作物的动物授粉，而最具经济价值的传粉者是驯化的蜜蜂，即意大利蜜蜂。由于这种群居昆虫丰富的行为能力和认知能力，蜜蜂已成为行为学、神经生物学、发育生物学、分子遗传学和动物认知等领域科学研究的主流动物模型。然而，尽管在这种模式生物上获得了大量的知识，但它的繁殖行为的关键方面，尤其令人震惊，仍然很难理解。蜜蜂的交配发生在所谓的无人机聚集区，也就是高空中的地方，雄蜂(无人机)在那里飞来飞去，几十只蜜蜂与单身处女蜂后交配。蜂王产生的一种主要嗅觉信号是蜂王信息素(9-oda)的一种成分，已知它能吸引雄蜂。然而，无人机实际上是如何找到它们的聚集区的，以及它们是否使用雄性产生的信息素信号还不得而知。无人机大脑在其主要嗅觉中心触角叶中呈现四个假定的信息素特定单位(大球)，其中一个单位对9-oda做出特异性反应。然而，剩下的三个单位的作用是什么？该项目旨在通过行为和神经生理学实验相结合的综合方法，阐明蜜蜂雄蜂的信息素交流系统。

All over the world food production depends on animal pollination of crops and the most economically valuable pollinator is the domesticated honeybee, Apis mellifera. Due to this social insects rich behavioral repertoire and cognitive abilities, honeybees have become a main-stream animal model for scientific studies in fields such as ethology, neurobiology, developmental biology, molecular genetics, and animal cognition. Yet, for all the enormous amount of knowledge acquired on this model organism, crucial aspects of its reproductive behavior, which is particularly striking, are still hardly understood. Mating in bees takes place at so-called drone-congregation areas, places high in the air, where male bees (drones) fly around and mate in dozens with single virgin queens. One main queen-produced olfactory signal a component of the queen pheromone (9-ODA) is known to attract the drones. However, how drones actually find their congregation areas and whether they use male-produced pheromonal signals is unknown. The drone brain presents four putative pheromone-specific units (macroglomeruli) in its primary olfactory center, the antennal lobe, and one of them responds specifically to 9-ODA. What is the role of the three remaining units, however? This project aims to shed light on the pheromonal communication system of honeybee drones, Apis mellifera, using an integrative approach combining behavioral and neurophysiological experiments.