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

社会信息的使用在自然界是广泛的，这有助于动物获得局部适应的信息。然而，虽然利用社会信息可以提供一种低成本、低风险的信息获取策略，但它也容易获得过时、不可靠甚至不适应的信息。因此，动物通常只在最好的策略下使用社会信息。蜜蜂拥有动物世界中最复杂的社会信息传递形式之一——摇摆舞。与其他动物的情况一样，一些蜜蜂在寻找食物时忽略了这种社会信息，而是依赖于所谓的私人信息（即空间记忆）或个体探索（即侦察）。虽然社会信息使用的生态学和经济学受到了很多关注，但对调节社会信息使用的分子因素知之甚少。基因组学的出现彻底改变了行为研究，我们现在能够测量大脑特定区域数千种基因的表达，从而更好地理解社会行为的分子基础。这个项目的目的是测试不同的信息使用策略（社会与私人信息使用与个人探索）是否可以与蜜蜂大脑中特定的基因表达特征联系起来。更具体地说，我们计划解决4个问题：(1)对社会信息的依赖，即摇摆舞的解码，与特征神经基因组特征有关吗？(2)特别是，介导奖励感知的基因是否对社会信息的依赖有因果关系？(3)成功使用社会信息对基因表达的影响是否与成功使用私人信息有差异？(4)社交信息与私人信息使用的差异是否随时间而持续？该项目的一个假设是，参与奖励感知和觅食动机的基因在调节社会信息的使用方面很重要。我们将结合行为实验、新一代测序技术和神经化学治疗来研究蜜蜂的社会信息使用，以解决这四个问题。蜜蜂是一个理想的模型系统，因为它们很容易研究摇摆舞，它们易于实验，并且有一个很好的注释基因组。这个项目的研究结果可能会对导致使用社会信息的决策过程的分子基础提供见解。

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of social information can provide a low-cost, low-risk strategy of acquiring information, it is also prone to obtaining outdated, unreliable and even maladaptive information.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.