Dissecting the physiological, sensory, cognitive, and social dynamic features of cellular aging in the honey bee worker brain

The honey bee is a key neurobiological model for understanding learning and memory formation. As a highly social invertebrate, moreover, the bee provides unique opportunities for cutting-edge research on aging and frailty because it opens up the interface between the individual and the social environment. Our group at UMB's Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences has over the last five years contributed to a deeper understanding of the regulation of honey bee lifespan. We have, e.g., shown that aging in worker bees is not a clear-cut function of chronological age. This is because aging can be controlled by social signals through a feedback pathway that involves the systemic hormone juvenile hormone and the gene vitellogenin. Recently, we starte d to investigate whether oxidative brain damage, a hallmark of aging, can be affected by social signals as well. Our preliminary data, obtained from immunohistochemical staining of 150 brains from 8-200 day-old workers, suggests that this is indeed the ca se. The proposal presented here outlines how we intend to move forward in our work to understand the pathology and social regulation of honey bee brain aging. Explicitly, we want to take advantage of the fact that we are at the research forefront in th e field of honey bee longevity regulation; mastering a broad range of key techniques including brain immunohistochemistry, RNA interference methodology, immuno- and ligand-blot procedures. From this foundation, we will first dissect the pathology of bee b rain aging in collaboration with Dr. Gimsa (Sub-goal 1). Next, together with Dr. Scheiner, who is an expert in the use of the bee as a neurobiological model, we will establish how brain aging affects the bee's sensory sensitivity and cognitive abilities ( Sub-goal 2). Finally, we will determine the extent of which the pathologies mapped under sub-goals 1 and 2 can be controlled, and possibly reversed, by social signals (Sub-goal 3).