The effect of stress on bee foraging behaviour

应激对蜜蜂觅食行为的影响

• 批准号: 2884607
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2884607
• 关键词: effect; stress; bee; foraging; behaviour

Background: The influence of stress on cognition is a key current consideration for animal welfare in vertebrates, but this has rarely been studied in invertebrates. Understanding similar responses in invertebrates such as bees would have crucial implications for their pollinator services and agriculture. Bumblebees are ideal systems to study these stress responses as they are easily kept in the lab and their cognition and behaviour is well characterized. A handful of previous papers have begun to show evidence of stress-induced cognitive changes in bees and have implicated bioamines such as dopamine in these changes. This project will use an animal welfare approach to investigate bee responses to major natural stressors and the mechanisms underlying these responses.Aims: 1) To characterize how stressors affect the immediate cognitive behaviours during pollination 2) To determine the time course of these effects in relation to the duration and frequency of stress 3) To investigate the neurochemicals underlying the stress response in beesMethodology: We will use behavioural assays called judgement bias tests that evaluate bee responses post-stress to ambiguous sources of reward. These classic tests for welfare have rarely been used with bees, but ongoing work in the PI's lab has used the approach to show cognitive biases in bees. These tests will characterize the time course of the response as well as the effect of stress duration and frequency (Years 1 and 2). Machine-learning based approaches using DeepLabCut, a Python-based open source software, will be used to characterize behaviour including changes in reward consumption and persistence on flowers (Year 2). To understand the mechanisms underlying these changes, work in the second supervisor's lab will investigate changes to the expression of dopamine and serotonin receptors in the brain at the level of both RNA (with qPCRs) and protein (with brain immunostaining and imaging) (Years 3 and 4). Neuropharmacological interventions will also be used to determine how the levels of bioamines such as dopamine and serotonin control the response to stressors over time (Years 2 and 3).Novelty: This project will make important progress for several fields including the neural basis of decision-making, animal welfare and pollinator biology. It addresses fundamental questions in animal welfare that are logistically and ethically more difficult to ask in vertebrates. This study will thus provide vital information in a tractable model system with important implications for pollination and agriculture.Understanding how stress affects pollinator behaviour has important implications for the NLD-DTP themes food security and sustainable agriculture (also BBSRC areas of investment) and understanding the effect of stress on brains and neurochemistry fits the neuroscience theme. Understanding how pesticides impact pollinators fits the BBSRC remit of research into animal models of toxicology, animal health and the welfare of managed animals. Developing bees as a model for animal welfare instead of vertebrates also works towards the replacement aspect of the 3Rs priorities of the BBSRC. Machine-learning based approaches to looking at behaviour also fulfil the remit of data-driven biology.

背景：压力对认知的影响是当前脊椎动物福利的一个关键考虑因素，但很少在无脊椎动物中进行研究。了解蜜蜂等无脊椎动物的类似反应将对它们的传粉媒介服务和农业产生至关重要的影响。大黄蜂是研究这些应激反应的理想系统，因为它们很容易保存在实验室中，并且它们的认知和行为得到了很好的表征。之前的一些论文已经开始显示压力引起蜜蜂认知变化的证据，并暗示这些变化与多巴胺等生物胺有关。该项目将使用动物福利方法来研究蜜蜂对主要自然压力源的反应以及这些反应背后的机制。目标：1）描述压力源如何影响授粉期间的即时认知行为2）确定这些影响与压力的持续时间和频率相关的时间过程3）研究蜜蜂压力反应背后的神经化学物质方法：我们将使用称为判断偏差测试的行为分析， 评估蜜蜂在应激后对模糊奖励来源的反应。这些经典的福利测试很少用于蜜蜂，但 PI 实验室正在进行的工作已经使用这种方法来显示蜜蜂的认知偏差。这些测试将表征响应的时间过程以及压力持续时间和频率的影响（第一年和第二年）。使用基于 Python 的开源软件 DeepLabCut 的基于机器学习的方法将用于描述行为特征，包括奖励消费的变化和花的持久性（第二年）。为了了解这些变化背后的机制，第二个主管实验室的工作将研究大脑中多巴胺和血清素受体在 RNA（通过 qPCR）和蛋白质（通过大脑免疫染色和成像）水平表达的变化（第 3 年和第 4 年）。神经药理学干预措施还将用于确定多巴胺和血清素等生物胺水平如何随着时间的推移（第 2 年和第 3 年）控制对压力源的反应。新颖性：该项目将在决策的神经基础、动物福利和传粉昆虫生物学等多个领域取得重要进展。它解决了动物福利中的基本问题，这些问题在逻辑上和伦理上都更难以在脊椎动物中提出。因此，这项研究将在易于处理的模型系统中提供重要信息，对授粉和农业具有重要意义。了解压力如何影响传粉者行为对 NLD-DTP 主题粮食安全和可持续农业（也是 BBSRC 的投资领域）具有重要意义，并且了解压力对大脑和神经化学的影响符合神经科学主题。了解农药如何影响传粉媒介符合 BBSRC 对毒理学、动物健康和管理动物福利动物模型的研究范围。开发蜜蜂代替脊椎动物作为动物福利模型也致力于 BBSRC 3R 优先事项的替代方面。基于机器学习的行为观察方法也满足了数据驱动生物学的职责。