Researchers from multiple universities are collaborating to investigate how the complex and cooperative behavior of honeybees (Apis mellifera) is genetically programmed for transmission across generations.
Behavioral interactions among organisms are fundamental and often inherited. All humans and animals interact with their social groups through behavior, which offers considerable advantages in collective foraging, predator defense, and offspring care.
In some species, such as bees, social behavioral bonds are so strong that individual members function collectively as a single "superorganism." Through their individual actions, thousands of worker bees protect the colony, feed it, and care for the brood.
Alongside colleagues from the universities of Frankfurt/Main, Oxford, and Würzburg, the team led by Beye and first author Dr. Vivien Sommer has discovered that a special gene known as dsx specifies the behavior of worker bees.
The biologists employed the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing tool to modify or disable the dsx gene in selected bees. They placed QR codes on the modified bees and monitored their behavior in the hive using cameras. The resulting video sequences were analyzed with artificial intelligence to determine individual behavioral patterns.
The researchers introduced green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the dsx sequence, allowing visualization of the dsx protein in conjunction with GFP. This enabled them to observe the neural circuits created by the dsx gene in both modified and unmodified bees through fluorescence microscopy.
PhD researcher Jana Seiler, co-author of the study, explained that the team utilized these tools to precisely identify which neural pathways the dsx gene establishes in the brain and how it specifies inherited behavioral patterns in bees.
Professor Dr. Wolfgang Rössler from the Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, who led the study at the University of Würzburg, stated that the team's findings indicate a fundamental genetic program that determines the neural circuits and behavior of worker bees.
The next step for the researchers is to transition from studying individual bees to understanding the superorganism of the bee colony. Alina Sturm, also a PhD researcher at HHU and co-author of the study, added, "We hope to find the link between individual programming and the coordinated behavior of many individuals."