From dancing birds to singing flies, animals have evolved an astounding diversity of behaviors to attract and choose mating partners. Guided by innate preferences and aversions, the brain filters complex environments for cues and signals to successfully navigate these reproductive behaviors in appropriate spatial, temporal, and social contexts. To understand how the natural environment shapes...
Among insects, ants possess the largest odorant receptor (OR) repertoires, thought to relate to their reliance on pheromones to mediate colony communication. Yet we still lack a detailed understanding of how recently duplicated OR genes are chosen by neurons, integrated into circuits, and molded by selection to drive behavior. Using the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi, a blind ant species...
Animals need to integrate external and internal information to inform navigational decisions during foraging. We showed that fly larvae switch from odor avoidance to odor attraction when food-deprived. This behavioral switch is mediated via increased serotonin release within the larval antennal lobe. We identified further that attractive odors can become more attractive in food-deprived larvae...
To ensure reproduction, animals must efficiently detect and process intraspecific cues, such as sexual pheromones. In this study, we wonder how the brain of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, processes the unique sex pheromone described in this species, 9-oxo decanoic acid (9-ODA), which triggers male attraction to virgin queens during the mating. Previous work has shown that 9-ODA is detected by...
The success of social insect colonies lies in the capacity of all members of the society to behave in a well-organized and context-dependent manner, thanks to elaborate communication among colony members. Honey bees, in particular, use a sophisticated chemical communication system based on the use of a high number of pheromones, most of which have already been identified. How does the social...
While the role of the antennal lobe (AL) in processing olfactory signals is well-documented, its function in integrating multiple sensory modalities remains underexplored. In addition to olfactory processing there is increasing evidence in mammals and insects that mechanical stimuli are also processed within the olfactory pathway at an early processing level, indicating a close connection...
