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

全世界的粮食生产都依赖于作物的动物授粉，而最具经济价值的授粉者是驯化的蜜蜂，意大利蜜蜂。由于这种社会性昆虫丰富的行为和认知能力，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，尽管人们对这种模式生物有了大量的了解，但其生殖行为的关键方面仍然很难理解。蜜蜂的交配发生在所谓的雄蜂聚集区，在高空中，雄蜂（雄蜂）飞来飞去，与单身的处女蜂王交配。一个主要的蜂王产生的嗅觉信号，一个成分的蜂王信息素（9-ODA）是已知的吸引雄蜂。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。雄蜂的大脑提出了四个假定的信息素特异性单位（macroglomeruli）在其主要的嗅觉中心，触角叶，其中一个专门响应9-ODA。然而，其余三个单位的作用是什么？本研究旨在通过行为学和神经生理学实验相结合的综合方法，揭示蜜蜂雄蜂信息素通讯系统。

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.