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Innervation pattern of suboesophageal ventral unpaired median neurones in the honeybee brain

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Abstract

In honeybees (Apis mellifera), the biogenic amine octopamine has been shown to play a role in associative and non-associative learning and in the division of labour in the hive. Immunohistochemical studies indicate that the ventral unpaired median (VUM) neurones in the suboesophageal ganglion (SOG) are putatively octopaminergic and therefore might be involved in the octopaminergic modulation of behaviour. In contrast to our knowledge about the behavioural effects of octopamine, only one neurone (VUMmx1) has been related to a behavioural effect (the reward function during olfactory learning). In this study, we have investigated suboesophageal VUM neurones with fluorescent dye-tracing techniques and intracellular recordings combined with intracellular staining. Ten different VUM neurones have been found including six VUM neurones innervating neuropile regions of the brain and the SOG exclusively (central VUM neurones) and four VUM neurones with axons in peripheral nerves (peripheral VUM neurones). The central VUM neurones innervate the antennal lobes, the protocerebral lobes (including the lateral horn) and the mushroom body calyces. Of these, a novel mandibular VUM neurone, VUMmd1, exhibits the same branching pattern in the brain as VUMmx1 and responds to sucrose and odours in a similar way. The peripheral VUM neurones innervate the antennal and the mandibular nerves. In addition, we describe one labial unpaired median neurone with a dorsal cell body, DUMlb1. The possible homology between the honeybee VUM neurones and the unpaired median neurones in other insects is discussed.

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Abbreviations

DUM neurone:

dorsal unpaired median neurone

EPSPs:

excitatory post-synaptic potentials

l-ACT:

lateral antenno-cerebralis tract

LbMT:

labial midline tract

mACT:

median antenno-cerebralis tract

MdMT:

mandibular midline tract

MT:

midline tract

MxMT:

maxillary midline tract

octopamine-IR:

octopamine-immunoreactive

PL:

protocerebral lobe

PTG:

prothoracic ganglion

SOG:

suboesophageal ganglion

US:

unconditioned stimulus

VUM neurone:

ventral unpaired median neurone

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Drs. Michael Ibbotson and Jürgen Rybak for helpful comments on the manuscript and to Dr. Jürgen Rybak for his contributions to the improvement of the figures. We also thank Malte Westerhoff for his cooperation regarding the development of important Amira tools for the three-dimensional reconstruction of single neurones, and Mary Wurm for her help with the English.

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  1. FB Biologie/Chemie/Pharmazie, Institut für Biologie - Neurobiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 28/30, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Ulrike Schröter, Dagmar Malun & Randolf Menzel

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  1. Ulrike Schröter
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  2. Dagmar Malun
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  3. Randolf Menzel
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Correspondence to Randolf Menzel.

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This work was supported by the DFG ME 365/24-2.

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Schröter, U., Malun, D. & Menzel, R. Innervation pattern of suboesophageal ventral unpaired median neurones in the honeybee brain. Cell Tissue Res 327, 647–667 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-006-0197-1

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