Metabolic costs of learning and memory in a key pollinator

The bumblebee Bombus terrestris is a key UK pollinator that relies upon sophisticated cognitive abilities to efficiently exploit a complex floral landscape. Impairment of cognitive function has been put forward as a mechanism that may underlie well-documented negative effects of pesticides on bees, but the key supporting data are currently missing. This is because we know almost nothing about how cognitive abilities impact upon fitness in bees. This project will contribute by assaying the mechanistic costs of cognitive investment.
The brain of an adult bee is developmentally plastic, and it has recently become apparent that repeated exposure to complex learning tasks brings about increased neural density in the mushroom bodies (a neural region associated with learning and memory in insects). We will (a) assay the induced metabolic costs associated with this process using respirometry and by assaying sucrose uptake associated with the learning process (b) explore potential trade-offs with other traits that place demands upon energy budgets, particularly reproductive development (c) investigate the potential of qPCR of synapsin in the mushroom bodies as a tool to quantify changes associated with learning.