Biology subjects

Mogily, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Mogily, S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Evidence for absence of bilateral transfer of olfactory learned information in Apis dorsata and Apis mellifera

Capacity and condition under which lateral transfer of olfactory memory is possible in insects are still debated. Here we present evidence consistent with lack of ability to transfer olfactory associative memory in two species of honeybees, Apis mellifera and Apis dorsata in a PER associative conditioning paradigm where the untrained antenna is blocked by an insulating coat. We show that the olfactory system on each side of the bee can learn and retrieve independently and the retrieval using the antenna on the side contralateral to the trained one is not affected by the training. Recreating the paradigm in which the memory on the contralateral side has been reported at three hours after training we see that the memory is available on the contralateral side immediately after training and moreover, training with trained side antenna coated with insulator does not prevent learning, pointing to a possible insufficiency of block of odor stimuli in this paradigm. Bee does not learn the odor stimuli applied to one side alone as a stimulus different from odor presented to both sides. Moreover the behaviour of the bee as a whole can be predicted if the sides are assumed to learn and store independently and the organism as a whole is able to retrieve the memory if either of the sides have learned.\n\nSummary StatementThe two halves of honeybee brain store and retrieve olfactory associative memories independently.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2018

Characterization of the olfactory system in Apis dorsata, an Asian honey bee

The European honeybee, Apis mellifera is the most common insect model system for studying learning and memory. We establish that the olfactory system of Apis dorsata, an Asian species of honeybee as an equivalent model to Apis mellifera to study physiology underlying learning and memory. We created an Atlas of the antennal lobe and counted the number of glomeruli in the antennal lobe of Apis dorsata to be around 165 which is similar to the number in the other honey bee species Apis mellifera and Apis florea. Apis dorsata was found to have five antenno-cerebral tracts namely mACT, lACT and 3 mlACTS which appear identical to Apis mellifera. Intracellular recording showed that the antennal lobe interneurons exhibit temporally patterned odor-cell specific responses. The neuritis of Kenyon cells with cell bodies located in a neighborhood in calyx retain their relative neighborhoods in the peduncle and alpha lobe forming a columnar organization in the mushroom body. Alpha lobe and the calyx of the mushroom body were innervated by extrinsic neurons with cell bodies in the lateral protocerebrum. A set of GABA positive cells in the lateral protocerebrum send their neurites towards alpha-lobe. Apis dorsata was amenable to olfactory conditioning and showed good learning and memory retention at 24 hours. They were amenable to massed and spaced conditioning and could distinguish trained odor from an untrained novel odor.

neuroscience↗