Differences in olfactory sensitivity and odor detection correlate with foraging task specialization in honeybees Apis mellifera

Moreno, Emilia; Corriale, María José; Arenas, Andrés

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2022.104416

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Honeybees have a sensitive olfactory system designed to help them navigate complex environments encompassing foraging, reproduction, brood care, and defense. Consequently, they can be used to reliably detect a wide range of volatile chemicals, or the 'smell' of objects, while also distinguishing between odor mixtures efficiently even at low concentrations [1][2][3][4] . Here, we hypothesize that the honeybee's powerful olfactory neural circuitry can be leveraged to develop a gas sensing system with the ability to detect lung cancer biomarkers present in exhaled human breath.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biological "noses", such as the honeybee antennae and olfactory brain are extremely sensitive, and honeybees have been shown to learn odor identity and perform complex olfactory behavioral tasks 1,3,68 . Similar to dogs' noses which have been successful in the detection of different VOCs of interests 62,[69][70][71][72][73][74][75] , it has been demonstrated that insects' noses, or antennae, can be exposed to a target smell and reinforced with a food reward for detection of that target stimuli, behaviorally 76 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Employing a honeybee olfactory neural circuit as a novel gas sensor for the detection of human lung cancer biomarkers

Parnas,

Cox,

Sanchez

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Human breath contains biomarkers (odorants) that can be targeted for early disease detection. It is well known that honeybees have a keen sense of smell and can detect a wide variety of odors at low concentrations. Here, for the first time, we employ honeybee olfactory neuronal circuitry to classify human lung cancer volatile biomarkers and their mixtures at concentration ranges relevant to human breath, parts-per-billion to parts-per-trillion. Different lung cancer biomarkers evoked distinct spiking response dynamics in the honeybee antennal lobe neurons indicating that those neurons encoded biomarker-specific information. By investigating lung cancer biomarker-evoked population neuronal responses from the honeybee antennal lobe, we could classify individual human lung cancer biomarkers successfully (88% success rate). When we mixed six lung cancer biomarkers at different concentrations to create ‘synthetic lung cancer’ vs. ‘synthetic healthy breath’, honeybee population neuronal responses were also able to classify those complex breath mixtures successfully (100% success rate with a leave-one-trial-out method). Finally, we used separate training and testing datasets containing responses to the synthetic lung cancer and healthy breath mixtures. We identified a simple metric, the peak response of the neuronal ensemble, with the ability to distinguish synthetic lung cancer breath from the healthy breath with 86.7% success rate. This study provides proof-of-concept results that a powerful biological gas sensor, the honeybee olfactory system, can be used to detect human lung cancer biomarkers and their complex mixtures at biological concentrations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employing a honeybee olfactory neural circuit as a novel gas sensor for the detection of human lung cancer biomarkers

Parnas,

Cox,

Sanchez

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, differences in sucrose responsiveness do not fully explain why foragers that are highly sensitive to sucrose are prone to collect pollen. In some cases, sucrose sensitivity has also been shown to correlate with behavioral responses triggered by other stimuli such as odors (13), light (14) and gustatory stimuli (e.g., those available in pollen; see 15).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pollen foragers learn faster and retain memories better than nectar foragers when pollen is used as reward (16) and when odors are presented at low intensities (13). High gustatory and olfactory sensitivity might enable pollen foragers to better assess pollen, which consequently enhances learning of environmental cues and foraging e ciency (13). Thus, the hypothesis that sensitivity to sucrose accounts for sensitivity to a wider range of foraging-related stimuli could explain why pollen foragers are more sensitive to sucrose than nectar foragers (17).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in resource perception throughout the foraging visit contribute to task specialization in the honeybee Apis mellifera

Moreno¹,

Arenas²

2022

Preprint

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Division of labor is central to the ecological success of social insects. Among foragers of the honeybee specialization for collecting nectar or pollen correlates with their sensitivity to sucrose. So far, differences in gustatory perception have been mostly studied in bees returning to the hive, but not during foraging. Here, we showed that the phase of the foraging visit (i.e. beginning or end) interacts with foraging specialization (i.e. predisposition to collect pollen or nectar) to modulate sucrose and pollen sensitivity in foragers. In concordance with previous studies, pollen foragers presented higher sucrose responsiveness than nectar foragers at the end of the foraging visit. On the contrary, pollen foragers were less responsive than nectar foragers at the beginning of the visit. Consistently, free-flying foragers accepted less concentrated sucrose solution during pollen gathering than immediately after entering the hive. Pollen perception also changes throughout foraging, as pollen foragers captured at the beginning of the visit learned and retained memories better when they were conditioned with pollen + sucrose as reward than when we used sucrose alone. Altogether, our results support the idea that changes in foragers' perception throughout the foraging visit contributes to task specialization.

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Social foraging of the honey bee colony

Rueppell,

Walton

2024

The Foraging Behavior of the Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera, L.)

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Differences in olfactory sensitivity and odor detection correlate with foraging task specialization in honeybees Apis mellifera

Cited by 8 publications

References 61 publications

Employing a honeybee olfactory neural circuit as a novel gas sensor for the detection of human lung cancer biomarkers

Employing a honeybee olfactory neural circuit as a novel gas sensor for the detection of human lung cancer biomarkers

Changes in resource perception throughout the foraging visit contribute to task specialization in the honeybee Apis mellifera

Social foraging of the honey bee colony

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