Guy Bloch1, Yair Shemesh2, Elad Rubin2, and Mira Cohen2. (1) Department of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel, (2) Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel
Honey bee larvae require constant care and young “nurse” bees work around the clock with no circadian rhythms to provide it; older foragers have strong circadian rhythms that are used for sun compass navigation, dance communication, and for timing visits to flowers. To explore the molecular bases of this naturally-occurring behavioral plasticity, we cloned orthologes for Drosophila and mammals clock genes and measured (with real time-PCR) their mRNA levels in whole brains of foragers and nurses entrained in a 12 hrs light: 12 hrs dark (LD), illumination regime and collected in LD or in constant darkness. The honey bee genome encodes only a mammalian-type Cry and does not contain an ortholog to dTim, an indispensable component of the Drosophila clock. Brain amPer and amCry mRNA levels vary profoundly during the day in foragers but not in nurses under both LD and DD illumination regimes. However, bees that nursed brood with no circadian rhythms in the colony manifested significant circadian rhythms when removed from the colony and monitored individually. These results suggest that some important features of the honey bee clockwork are more similar to mammals than to Drosophila. Task-related plasticity in circadian rhythms depends on the social context and is mediated by altered pattern of brain clock gene expression. These findings link social interactions between individual bees (division of labor) to intricate molecular processes in the brain.
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