Octopamine and tyramine modulate the thermoregulatory fanning response in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Abstract

Biogenic amines regulate the proximate mechanisms underlying most behavior, including those that contribute to the overall success of complex societies. For honey bees, one crucial set of behaviors contributing to the welfare of a colony is involved with nest thermoregulation. Worker honeybees cool the colony by performing a fanning behavior, the expression of which is largely influenced by response thresholds modulated by the social environment. Here, we examined how changes in biogenic amines affect this group-performed thermoregulatory fanning behavior in honeybees. Concentrations of two biogenic amines, octopamine and tyramine, are significantly lower in active fanners than in non-fanners, but there is no difference in dopamine and serotonin concentrations. Direct feeding of octopamine and tyramine induced a decrease in fanning responses, but only when both amines were included in the treatment. This is the first evidence that fanning behavior is influenced by these two biogenic amines, and this result is consistent with the typical role of these neurotransmitters in regulating locomotor activity in other insects. Individual variation in amine expression also provides a mechanistic link that helps to explain how this group behavior might be coordinated within a colony.

Individual differences in learning and biogenic amine levels influence the behavioural division between foraging honeybee scouts and recruits

“…We analysed brain and haemolymph samples from brains of individual bees with an established protocol that uses using high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to an electrochemical detector to quantify dopamine (DA), octopamine (OA), serotonin (5‐HT) and tyramine (TA; Cook, Brent, & Breed, ). Individual assessment allowed the amine data to be coupled to specific behavioural responses.…”

Effects of group size on learning and memory in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

“…This result should be interpreted with caution, as it might be due to the low sensitivity of our methods. Although Schulz and Robinson (1999) found no difference between freeze-dried and snap-frozen bees, snap freezing is an ideal method as it is more rapid and widely used in behavioural work (Chen et al, 2008;Sasaki and Harano, 2007;Cook et al, 2017). Additionally, analysing individual honey bee brains would facilitate a more robust comparison and identification of individual variation (Cook et al, 2019).…”

“…We used a plastic pestle to disrupt brain tissue for 30 s. We then placed tubes containing brains into a sonicated ice bath for 5 min, after which they were allowed to incubate for 20 min to further extract amines. We then centrifuged the brains at 12,000 g, 4°C for 10 min to pellet the tissue (Wagener-Hulme et al, 1999;Hartfelder et al, 2013;Cook et al, 2017).…”

“…The mobile phase flow rate was 1 ml min −1 . All results are reported in picograms per three brains and were calculated from curves of external standards run before, during and after samples (Penick et al, 2014;Brent et al, 2016;Cook et al, 2017) (hydrochloric forms of dopamine, octopamine, serotonin and tyramine; Sigma-Aldrich).…”

Social Evolution With Decoupling of Multiple Roles of Biogenic Amines Into Different Phenotypes in Hymenoptera

“…Although nursing is a major task for workers in the nest, a clear involvement of biogenic amines in enhancing brood care has not been reported in hymenopterans, and increased levels of amines are more likely to be associated with extranidal tasks. An example of amine involvement in intranidal task regulation in honey bees could be tyramine and octopamine involvement in thermoregulatory fanning in the nest (Cook et al, 2017). The nursing behavior of worker honey bees occurs under lower levels of octopamine, dopamine, and serotonin, which increase in the brain with age under queenright conditions (Taylor et al, 1992;Schulz and Robinson, 1999).…”