The genes mediating the use of social information in honeybees (Apis mellifera)

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The use of social information is widespread in nature and helps animals to acquire locally adaptive information. Yet, while the use of social information can provide a low-cost, low-risk strategy of acquiring information, it is also prone to obtaining outdated, unreliable and even maladaptive information. As a consequence, animals often only use social information when this is the best strategy. Honeybees possess one of the most sophisticated forms of social information transmission in the animal world, the waggle dance. As is the case in other animals, some bees ignore this social information and instead rely on so-called private information (i.e. spatial memories) or individual exploration (i.e. scouting) when searching for food. While the ecology and economy of social information-use has received much attention, little is known about the molecular factors that mediate the use of social information. The advent of genomics has revolutionised the study of behaviour and we are now able to measure the expression of thousands of genes in specific areas of the brain to better understand the molecular basis of social behaviours. The aim of this project is to test if different information-use strategies (social vs. private information-use vs. individual exploration) can be linked to particular gene expression signatures in the honeybee brain. More specifically, we plan to address 4 questions: (1) is the reliance on social information, i.e. the decoding of waggle dances, associated with a characteristic neurogenomic signature? (2) In particular, are genes that mediate reward perception causally responsible for the reliance on social information? (3) Does the successful use of social information affect gene expression differentially than the use of private information? (4) Are differences in the use of social vs. private information consistent over time? One hypothesis of the project is that genes involved in reward perception and foraging motivation are important in mediating the use of social information. We will address these four questions by combining behavioural experiments, next-generation sequencing technology and neurochemical treatments to study social information-use in honeybees. Honeybees are an ideal model system to due to their easily studied waggle dances, their accessibility to experimentation and the availability of a well annotated genome. The findings from this project are likely to provide insights into the molecular basis of the decision-making process that leads to the use of social information.