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Changes in responsiveness to allatostatin treatment accompany shifts in stress reactivity in young worker honey bees

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Abstract

Exposing honey bees to isopentylacetate (IPA) can cause stress-related changes in learning performance. In bees of foraging age, IPA’s effects on learning are mimicked by C-type allatostatins (AstCC, AstCCC) injected into the brain. Here we ask whether allatostatins induce a similar response in young (6-day-old) bees and if so, whether their effects on learning performance are modulated by queen mandibular pheromone (QMP). We found that young bees exposed to IPA responded less to the conditioned stimulus during training than controls (Type 1-like stress response). AstCC treatment induced a similar response, but only in bees maintained without QMP. Bees exposed to QMP responded to AstCC with increased odour responsiveness and odour generalisation in the 1-h memory test (Type 2-like response). Type 2-like responses could be induced also by the A-type allatostatin, AstA. However, in bees exposed to QMP, AstA-induced odour generalisation was absent. Effects of AstCCC treatment in young bees were weak, indicating that responsiveness to this peptide changes with age. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that honey bee allatostatins play a role in stress reactivity, but suggest in addition that allatostatin signalling is age dependent and susceptible to modulation by pheromone released by the queen bee.

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Abbreviations

AstA:

Allatostatin A

AstC:

Allatostatin C

AstCC:

Allatostatin CC

AstCCC:

Allatostatin CCC

GLMM:

Generalised linear mixed effects modelling

IPA:

Isopentylacetate

PER:

Proboscis extension response

QMP:

Queen mandibular pheromone

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, PO Box 56, 9054, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Elodie Urlacher & Alison R. Mercer

  2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (UMR 5169), Toulouse, France

    Jean-Marc Devaud

  3. Université de Toulouse, UPS Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (UMR 5169), Toulouse, France

    Jean-Marc Devaud

Authors
  1. Elodie Urlacher
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  2. Jean-Marc Devaud
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  3. Alison R. Mercer
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Correspondence to Alison R. Mercer.

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Urlacher, E., Devaud, JM. & Mercer, A.R. Changes in responsiveness to allatostatin treatment accompany shifts in stress reactivity in young worker honey bees. J Comp Physiol A 205, 51–59 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-018-1302-0

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