Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University publishes the latest research results in the top international academic journal "Science"

Recently, the research team of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Su Songkun led the team of Professor Martin Giurfa from the University of Toulouse III, France, and Professor Zhang Shaowu from the Australian National University to publish a paper entitled "Food Wanting is Mediated by Transient Activation of Dopaminergic Signaling in the Honey" in the top international academic journal "Science".

Figure 1 "Food Wanting is Mediated by Transient Activation of Dopaminergic Signaling in the Honey Bee Brain" published by Science

(Transiently activated dopamine signaling in the bee brain regulates food desire)

This study is the first to discover and confirm that dopamine in the honeybee brain regulates Food Wanting, revealing that honeybees (insects) have a food desire system regulated by dopamine similar to mammals

Bees are a globally important economic animal and a model organism for the study of social behavior and health (Nature, 2006)

In mammals, the production of wanting is regulated by the mesolimbic dopamine neural pathway

To answer these questions, the team of researchers monitored the gathering and dancing behaviors of the gathering bees, while simultaneously detecting and interfering with brain biogenic amine signaling in the gathering bees during key stages of the gathering and information exchange cycle

Study 1.

Figure 2.

Study 2.

Figure 3Effects of pharmacological blockade of honeybee dopaminergic signaling on food-gathering behavior 

Study 3.

Figure 4 The dopamine-regulated food desire system affects the appetite response and appetite-related learning and memory behavior of individual honeybees 

In conclusion, this study focuses on forager bees that perform intensive food-gathering activities to meet the food needs of the colony, and explores whether foragers out of the hive are driven by specific reward expectations (food desires) and whether these reward expectations are recalled during the dance phase

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University is the first signatory unit of the research results

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.

Article link: https://