Unraveling the motivational secrets of honey bee foraging during the COVID pandemic

Honeybees are unique among insects because they deploy impressive learning and memory capabilities during their foraging activities and rely on a sophisticated social organization that includes specialized castes, division of labor, and elaborated communication codes. Their foraging behavior is at the core of the millenary relationship linking them to humans, as we profit not only from products such as honey, pollen, propolis, and wax, but also from pollination services provided by bees to agriculture. Thus, characterizing the neural mechanisms that control the foraging motivation of honeybees represents a strategic goal both from a scientific and an economic perspective. This ambitious goal can only be reached through the joint action of multiple disciplines tackling the problem from different perspectives. Therefore, we established a consortium of molecular biologists, electrophysiologists, behavioral biologists, electricians, specialists in brain imaging, and beekeepers to characterize the role of a neuropeptide - a protein made of few amino acids and released by neurons to modulate different physiological functions - in the regulation of appetitive responses of honeybees. In our recent iScience article (Bestea et al., 2022a), we aimed at studying the role of a neuropeptide termed short neuropeptide F (sNPF) in the responses of bees to food (sucrose solution in our experiments) and food-related stimuli (flower odorants, for instance). Interestingly, sNPF is an insect pendant'' of another neuropeptide that can be found in vertebrates, the neuropeptide Y, which regulates responses to food and to stress. Research by Gabriela de Brito Sanchez, an electrophysiologist interested in sensory receptors and based at the University of Toulouse, and Rodrigo Velarde, a Bolivian molecular biologist based at SOLATINA, a Latin-American research consortium working on bees, had identified this neuropeptide as a potential regulator of bee colony activity. However, no experiments had been performed to address the question of its effect at the level of individual bees. Thus, a research program was conceived by Gabriela to investigate if sNPF controls the feeding decisions made by a foraging bee confronted with food and food-related stimuli. To this end, it was critical to manipulate sNPF levels of individual bees to study if this variation would induce significant changes in the bees' food and stress responses.

Automated summary

Honeybees possess impressive learning and memory capabilities during foraging activities and rely on a sophisticated social organization. Investigating the neural mechanisms behind honeybees' foraging motivation is crucial for both scientific and economic reasons. In a recent study, a team of researchers from various disciplines explored the role of a neuropeptide called sNPF in regulating honeybees' responses to food and food-related stimuli.