TY - JOUR
T1 - Cross-modal interaction between visual and olfactory learning in Apis cerana
AU - Zhang, Li Zhen
AU - Zhang, Shao Wu
AU - Wang, Zi Long
AU - Yan, Wei Yu
AU - Zeng, Zhi Jiang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
PY - 2014/9/1
Y1 - 2014/9/1
N2 - The power of the small honeybee brain carrying out behavioral and cognitive tasks has been shown repeatedly to be highly impressive. The present study investigates, for the first time, the cross-modal interaction between visual and olfactory learning in Apis cerana. To explore the role and molecular mechanisms of cross-modal learning in A. cerana, the honeybees were trained and tested in a modified Y-maze with seven visual and five olfactory stimulus, where a robust visual threshold for black/white grating (period of 2.8°–3.8°) and relatively olfactory threshold (concentration of 50–25 %) was obtained. Meanwhile, the expression levels of five genes (AcCREB, Acdop1, Acdop2, Acdop3, Actyr1) related to learning and memory were analyzed under different training conditions by real-time RT-PCR. The experimental results indicate that A. cerana could exhibit cross-modal interactions between visual and olfactory learning by reducing the threshold level of the conditioning stimuli, and that these genes may play important roles in the learning process of honeybees.
AB - The power of the small honeybee brain carrying out behavioral and cognitive tasks has been shown repeatedly to be highly impressive. The present study investigates, for the first time, the cross-modal interaction between visual and olfactory learning in Apis cerana. To explore the role and molecular mechanisms of cross-modal learning in A. cerana, the honeybees were trained and tested in a modified Y-maze with seven visual and five olfactory stimulus, where a robust visual threshold for black/white grating (period of 2.8°–3.8°) and relatively olfactory threshold (concentration of 50–25 %) was obtained. Meanwhile, the expression levels of five genes (AcCREB, Acdop1, Acdop2, Acdop3, Actyr1) related to learning and memory were analyzed under different training conditions by real-time RT-PCR. The experimental results indicate that A. cerana could exhibit cross-modal interactions between visual and olfactory learning by reducing the threshold level of the conditioning stimuli, and that these genes may play important roles in the learning process of honeybees.
KW - Apis cerana
KW - Cross-modal learning
KW - Olfactory stimuli real-time RT-PCR
KW - Visual stimuli
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919909631&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00359-014-0934-y
DO - 10.1007/s00359-014-0934-y
M3 - Article
SN - 0340-7594
VL - 200
SP - 899
EP - 909
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
IS - 10
ER -