[Pollinator] NYT: Brains of Bee Scouts Are Wired for Adventure

[Jennifer Tsang]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/science/brains-of-honeybee-scouts-are-wire
d-for-adventure.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bee%20gene%20robinson&st=cse

 

March 9, 2012


Brains of Bee Scouts Are Wired for Adventure


By SINDYA N. BHANOO


Some honeybees
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/bees/index.html?inline=ny
t-classifier>  are known to be thrill-seeking adventurers - the David
Blaines of their hive, so to speak. Known as scouts, they fearlessly leave
their hives and search for new sources of food and new hive locations for
the rest of the colony. 

Now, a new study suggests that these scouts have genetic brain patterns that
set them apart from other bees. 

"We found massive differences in brain gene expressions between scouts and
nonscouts," said Gene E.
<http://www.life.illinois.edu/entomology/faculty/robinson.html>  Robinson, a
geneticist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an author of
the study <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6073/1225.abstract> , which
appears in the current issue of the journal Science. 

The scientists also found that by increasing or inhibiting certain chemicals
in the brain, they could encourage scouting behavior in otherwise timid
bees, and suppress it in the thrill seekers. "By manipulating some
neurochemical pathways, we could increase the chances of scouting behavior,"
Dr. Robinson said. 

That behavior, he added, has analogues in human society. Just as human
novelty seekers run the gamut from bold leaders to drug takers to
enthusiasts for extreme sports like bungee jumping, the new research
indicates that scouting bees also have a range of brain variations. "We find
this intriguing parallel, and we see these molecular similarities," Dr.
Robinson said. 

The chemicals that seem to be connected to scouting activity include
catecholamine, glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid - all chemicals that
are also involved in regulating thrill-seeking behavior in humans and other
vertebrates. 

The researchers think these molecular pathways evolved similarly in bees and
humans. 

 

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