period expression in the honey bee brain is developmentally regulated and not affected by light, flight experience, or colony type

• Published in: Insect biochemistry and molecular biology 2004-09, Vol.34 (9), p.879-891
• Main Authors: Bloch, G., Rubinstein, C.D., Robinson, G.E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: animal age; Animals; Apidae; Apis mellifera; Bees - growth & development; Bees - physiology; Biological clock; Brain; Brain - metabolism; Circadian Rhythm; Circadian rhythms; Clock gene; colony size; diurnal variation; Feeding Behavior; Flight, Animal - physiology; forager bees; Gene Expression Profiling; gene expression regulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Honey bee; honey bee colonies; honey bees; insect development; insect flight; Insect Proteins - biosynthesis; Insect Proteins - genetics; Light; messenger RNA; Motor Activity - physiology; Nuclear Proteins - biosynthesis; Nuclear Proteins - genetics; nurse bees; Period Circadian Proteins; RNA, Messenger - biosynthesis; Social Behavior; Social insects; worker honey bees
• ISSN: 0965-1748; 1879-0240
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2004.05.004

Changes in circadian rhythms of behavior are related to age-based division of labor in honey bee colonies. The expression of the clock gene period ( per) in the bee brain is associated with age-related changes in circadian rhythms of behavior, but previous efforts to firmly associate per brain expression with division of labor or age have produced variable results. We explored whether this variability was due to differences in light and flight experience, which vary with division of labor, or differences in colony environment, which are known to affect honey bee behavioral development. Our results support the hypothesis that per mRNA expression in the bee brain is developmentally regulated. One-day-old bees had the lowest levels of expression and rarely showed evidence of diurnal fluctuation, while foragers and forager-age bees (>21 days of age) always had high levels of brain per and strong and consistent diurnal patterns. Results from laboratory and field experiments do not support the hypothesis that light, flight experience, and colony type influence per expression. Our results suggest that the rate of developmental elevation in per expression is influenced by factors other than the ones studied in our experiments, and that young bees are more sensitive to these factors than foragers.