Sequential social experiences interact to modulate aggression but not brain gene expression in the honey bee ( Apis mell
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Sequential social experiences interact to modulate aggression but not brain gene expression in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) Clare C. Rittschof
Abstract Background: In highly structured societies, individuals behave flexibly and cooperatively in order to achieve a particular group-level outcome. However, even in social species, environmental inputs can have long lasting effects on individual behavior, and variable experiences can even result in consistent individual differences and constrained behavioral flexibility. Despite the fact that such constraints on behavior could have implications for behavioral optimization at the social group level, few studies have explored how social experiences accumulate over time, and the mechanistic basis of these effects. In the current study, I evaluate how sequential social experiences affect individual and group level aggressive phenotypes, and individual brain gene expression, in the highly social honey bee (Apis mellifera). To do this, I combine a whole colony chronic predator disturbance treatment with a lab-based manipulation of social group composition. Results: Compared to the undisturbed control, chronically disturbed individuals show lower aggression levels overall, but also enhanced behavioral flexibility in the second, lab-based social context. Disturbed bees display aggression levels that decline with increasing numbers of more aggressive, undisturbed group members. However, group level aggressive phenotypes are similar regardless of the behavioral tendencies of the individuals that make up the group, suggesting a combination of underlying behavioral tendency and negative social feedback influences the aggressive behaviors displayed, particularly in the case of disturbed individuals. An analysis of brain gene expression showed that aggression related biomarker genes reflect an individual’s disturbance history, but not subsequent social group experience or behavioral outcomes. Conclusions: In highly social animals with collective behavioral phenotypes, social context may mask underlying variation in individual behavioral tendencies. Moreover, gene expression patterns may reflect behavioral tendency, while behavioral outcomes are further regulated by social cues perceived in real-time. Keywords: Behavioral genomics, Personality, Social insects, Plasticity, Aggression, Collective behavior, Timescale
Background For social animals, behavioral phenotypes exist at both the individual and group levels [1–8]. Understanding the mechanistic and social factors that shape phenotypes at these two levels remains a fundamental challenge in social behavior research. In some cases, the behavioral tendency of the most extreme group member, or the average tendencies across group members, are good predictors of group-level behavioral phenotypes [9–11]. Correspondence: [email protected] Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, S-225 Ag. Science Center North, Lexington, KY 40546, USA
In highly structured societies however, individuals continuously
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