Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Amaia Alcalde Anton, Fletcher J. Young, Lina Melo-Florez, Antoine Couto, Stephen Cross, W. Owen McMillan, Stephen H. Montgomery
Summary: Heliconius butterflies have unique behaviors, including actively feeding on pollen. They have enhanced visual memories and developed mushroom bodies compared to related species. However, the number of neurons in the mushroom bodies remains constant in adult butterflies, suggesting a lack of adult neurogenesis.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Ashwak Abdel-Moneim Hassan, Yasser Essam Elenany
Summary: More scientific study and methods are needed in modern beekeeping to increase the productivity and well-being of honeybees by using honeybee-specific probiotic bacteria. This study investigated the effects of probiotics isolated from honeybee intestines and soybean patties on nurse worker bee HPG development. The results showed a significant increase in HPG morphometric parameters in all experimental groups, with the group fed with both probiotic and soya patty having the highest parameters.
PROBIOTICS AND ANTIMICROBIAL PROTEINS
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Yun-Hui Kim, Bo-Yeon Kim, Jin-Myung Kim, Yong-Soo Choi, Man-Young Lee, Kwang-Sik Lee, Byung-Rae Jin
Summary: In this study, the expression patterns of MRJPs in the hypopharyngeal glands and Vg in the fat body of honeybee nurse bees after feeding them live or heat-killed Paenibacillus larvae were investigated. The results showed that the expression of MRJPs and defensin-1 in the hypopharyngeal glands and Vg in the fat body was significantly induced in nurse bees upon bacterial ingestion. The differential expression patterns of MRJPs, defensin-1, and Vg were dependent on the bacterial status and timing of bacterial ingestion. The findings provide novel insights into the ingested pathogen fragments-Vg-nurse's hypopharyngeal gland axis for Transgenerational immune priming (TGIP).
Article
Entomology
Tsunashi Kamo, Aoi Nikkeshi, Tomoya Tawaratsumida, Yoshihiro Tanaka, Shoko Nakamura, Shigeki Kishi
Summary: This study investigated the species composition and pollination efficiency of pollinators in delayed-start cultivation of kabocha squash in southwestern Japan. The results showed that bumblebees were more efficient pollinators at the individual level, but the numerous visits by honeybees compensated for their lower efficiency and resulted in fruit set. In addition, this study reported for the first time that a lepidopteran, the hummingbird hawkmoth, can also pollinate squash.
APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Tianfei Peng, Dennis Derstroff, Lea Maus, Timo Bauer, Christoph Grueter
Summary: The study found that older foraging honeybees had higher expression of receptor genes in the mushroom bodies compared to younger foragers, while cumulative foraging activity was not related to receptor gene expression. Additionally, the foraging state of time-trained foragers affected receptor gene expression. Overall, the expression of receptor genes in forager mushroom bodies is complex and influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
(2021)
Article
Zoology
A. A. Panov
Summary: Neurogenesis is divided into two main stages: proliferation and differentiation. Initially believed to be a single-stage process, it was later discovered to be a two-stage process. The study of neurogenesis has mainly focused on the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the use of molecular genetic methods has allowed for the detection of the finest mechanisms of neurogenesis. There are two types of neuroblasts involved in neurogenesis, type I and type II, which have different fates and functions.
ZOOLOGICHESKY ZHURNAL
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ioannis Pisokas, Wolfgang Roessler, Barbara Webb, Jochen Zeil, Ajay Narendra
Summary: Solitary foraging insects, such as ants, use path integration to estimate the direction and distance to their starting location. Anesthesia experiments on ants show that the memory of the distance traveled is degraded after recovery, but the memory of the direction is retained. This suggests that path integration memory is based on an activity-dependent molecular process.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
M. Jerome Beetz, Christian Kraus, Myriam Franzke, David Dreyer, Martin F. Strube-Bloss, Wolfgang Rossler, Eric J. Warrant, Christine Merlin, Basil El Jundi
Summary: Animals use an internal compass for navigation, which is crucial for long-distance migrating animals like monarch butterflies. During flight, the heading-direction neurons in monarch butterflies change their tuning, transforming the central-complex network to function as a global compass. This allows for robust heading representation even under unreliable visual scenarios.
Editorial Material
Behavioral Sciences
Gunther K. H. Zupanc, Kentaro Arikawa, Charlotte Helfrich-Forster, Uwe Homberg, Peter M. Narins, Wolfgang Rossler, Andrea Megela Simmons, Eric J. Warrant
Summary: This article introduces the winners of the 2022 Editors' Choice Award and Readers' Choice Award in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A, as well as the categories and content of the awarded papers. The Editors' Choice Award winners were selected by the Editorial Board based on highly recommended papers in Volume 207 in 2021, while the Readers' Choice Award winners were determined by access numbers of articles in Volume 206 in 2020.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Pauline N. Fleischmann, Robin Grob, Wolfgang Roessler
Summary: Calaglyphis desert ants calibrate their compass systems and learn visual panoramas at the beginning of foraging careers, using structured initial learning walks and re-learning walks. Foragers and novices show differences in compass cues and behaviors, but remain magnetosensitive in cue conflict situations under manipulated panorama conditions.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Alexandre Andrade Loch, Anderson Ara, Lucas Hortencio, Julia Hatagami Marques, Leda Leme Talib, Julio Cesar Andrade, Mauricio Henriques Serpa, Luciano Sanchez, Tania Maria Alves, Martinus Theodorus van de Bilt, Wulf Roessler, Wagner Farid Gattaz
Summary: The 'at risk mental state' (ARMS) paradigm has been applied in studying prodromal phases of schizophrenia, but faces challenges in preventative medicine. By using Bayesian networks, a holistic model was developed to predict conversion to psychiatric illness among ARMS individuals, achieving a high accuracy rate.
NEUROSCIENCE LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Neuroimaging
Lukasz Smigielski, Philipp Stampfli, Diana Wotruba, Roman Buechler, Stefan Sommer, Miriam Gerstenberg, Anastasia Theodoridou, Susanne Walitza, Wulf Rossler, Karsten Heekeren
Summary: The study compared white matter differences between individuals at risk for psychosis and controls using MRI diffusion and symptom data, revealing some correlations.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Casper J. van der Kooi, Johannes Spaethe
Summary: The research on the importance of flower colors to plants and pollinators has shown that common calculation procedures may have problems, and studies on animal color vision do not provide grounds for assuming that pollinators perceive saturation, chroma, or spectral purity like humans do. Alternative, behaviorally validated metrics for the visibility of flowers are suggested for a better understanding of flower color in plant-pollinator signaling.
Review
Biology
Ayse Yilmaz, Johannes Spaethe
Summary: Ants are ecologically important insects with impressive capabilities for visual learning and orientation, able to discriminate between different colours irrespective of light intensity. However, findings across species are variable and inconsistent, indicating that our understanding of ant color vision and the role of ecological and phylogenetic factors is still in its early stages. Through compiling studies on molecular, physiological, and behavioral aspects of ant color vision, this review aims to deepen our understanding of color vision and gain insights into the colorful world of ants.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Robin Richter, Alexander Dietz, James Foster, Johannes Spaethe, Anna Stoeckl
Summary: The colourful patterns on flowers have been found to guide flower-visiting insects, reducing their handling time and improving the efficiency of pollination.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Behavioral Sciences
Gunther K. H. Zupanc, Wolfgang Roessler, Eric J. J. Warrant, Uwe Homberg, Kentaro Arikawa, Charlotte Helfrich-Foerster, Peter M. M. Narins, Andrea Megela Simmons
Summary: The Journal of Comparative Physiology A, which has a history of 99 years, has published influential papers in comparative physiology and related disciplines. The winners of the 2023 Editors' Choice Awards include papers on contact chemoreception in prey sensing by octopus and magnetic maps in animal navigation. The winners of the 2023 Readers' Choice Awards include papers on thermal homeostasis of honeybee colonies and a historical letter on Einstein and the honeybee by von Frisch.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Wolfgang Roessler, Robin Grob, Pauline N. Fleischmann
Summary: This review examines how Cataglyphis desert ants acquire spatial information and adjust their visual compass systems. The ants perform learning walks before transitioning from the dark nest to bright sunlight, using the Earth's magnetic field as a compass. Specific sky compass cues trigger neuronal plasticity in visual circuits, while passive light exposure induces changes in synaptic complexes upstream of the central complex. A multisensory circuit model is proposed to explain the structural neuroplasticity during learning walks.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Quentin Guignard, Johannes Spaethe, Bernard Slippers, Natasa Nikolic, Jeremy D. Allison
Summary: This study aimed to expand our knowledge of the visual system of S. noctilio by morphological description of the compound eyes and ocelli, and semi-field behavioural tests of the colour preference of newly emerged wasps. The results showed that the visual system of woodwasp is not sexually dimorphic, and color tracking might not be an important input for mate searching. The study also revealed a correlation between body size and eye and ocellus morphological features.
AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Carmen A. Nebauer, Marielle C. Schleifer, Fabian A. Ruedenauer, Sara D. Leonhardt, Johannes Spaethe
Summary: Many flowering plants rely on insect pollinators, such as bees, and offer rewards like nectar and pollen. Bees, in particular, depend on pollen as their main nutrient source, which contains essential micro- and macronutrients including sterols. The concentration of sterols in pollen can affect bee health and reproduction, but bees may not need to pay specific attention to pollen sterol content beyond a certain threshold.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Jens Habenstein, Kornelia Gruebel, Keram Pfeiffer, Wolfgang Roessler
Summary: In this study, the honey bee cerebrum was anatomically and microscopically analyzed using immunolabeling and neuronal tract tracing techniques. A total of 35 neuropils and 25 fiber tracts were discovered. This brain atlas provides valuable information for studying multisensory integration in honey bees and comparative research.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Wolfgang Roessler
Summary: This article provides a brief overview of the skills of Cataglyphis desert ants in multisensory learning and neuronal plasticity, focusing on their transition from the dark nest interior to performing first foraging trips. It highlights desert ants as experimental models for studying the neuronal mechanisms underlying behavioral development into successful navigators.
TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
(2023)
