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Comparing the input pathways to the Noduli of the Central Complex of Army ants and Megalopta bee

Truong, Antony (2021) MOBK01 20211
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
Relay of information in the insect brain

The brain has for decades been studied, and it is not yet understood but what we do know is that it is certainly an important organ in our body. There are many things that it controls such as eating, sleeping, thinking, moving, or just simply looking. In order for us to carry out daily activities, information has to be processed by the brain. If we intend to move from one place to another information have to first be transported to the brain, telling us where we want to go, then information is sent from the brain to the rest of the body to move. But does it work similarly in all organisms?

In my project, we work with insect brains or specifically the Central complex (CX) in two different... (More)
Relay of information in the insect brain

The brain has for decades been studied, and it is not yet understood but what we do know is that it is certainly an important organ in our body. There are many things that it controls such as eating, sleeping, thinking, moving, or just simply looking. In order for us to carry out daily activities, information has to be processed by the brain. If we intend to move from one place to another information have to first be transported to the brain, telling us where we want to go, then information is sent from the brain to the rest of the body to move. But does it work similarly in all organisms?

In my project, we work with insect brains or specifically the Central complex (CX) in two different species; the army ant (Eciton hamatum) and sweat bees (Megalopta genalis). These three species live in very different ecological niches which is the reason of interest. The CX is a highly conserved brain structure that has been around for over 400 million years in all insects known today. The structure has been shown to control multiple essential functions but is most known for its effect on their navigational ability. The CX is composed of four parts, the fan shaped body (FB), the ellipsoid body (EB), the protocerebral bridge (PB) and a pair of noduli (NO).

In this study, we focus on the noduli and its neuron input pathway. Neurons are the cells responsible for the relay of information to and from the brain. Neurons are nerve cells; they are special in a way that they can communicate with other cells. There are several types of neurons but generally they consist of a cell body, an axon, and dendrites. The cell body is in charge of sending an electric signal also known as action potential that travels through the axon which then reaches the dendrites that have synapses that are able to communicate with the cell on the other side. The cells we are targeting are known as tangential neurons (TN). These TN cells are known to branch into the noduli and provide them with optic flow-based information, which is the constant update of visual imaging while moving.

We looked into the projection field of the neuron input by tracing the neurons using image stacks collected from each species. This was done using a software called CATMAID (Collaborative Annotation Toolkit for Massive Amounts of Image Data) and through this we got 3D skeletons of each cell and were able to compare them. We found that the number of TN cells present differed as well as the projections field between them, this might be the result of their different lifestyle, but further research has to be done. However, what is more astonishing is that we found more neurons than we expected in the Megalopta, which quickly shifted our focus towards this discovery. Through previous studies of the bumblebee Bombus only 5 TN neurons has been found to project into the NO. Since they are both part of the bee family similar numbers of TN were expected. However, a total of 9 were found instead in the Megalopta. What this result tells us is that there is so much left to discover and more research that has to be done.

Supervisor: Stanley Heinze
Bachelor’s project in molecular biology 15 hp VT 2021
The institute of Biology, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Truong, Antony
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20211
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
9060370
date added to LUP
2021-07-01 12:52:05
date last changed
2021-07-01 12:52:05
@misc{9060370,
  author       = {{Truong, Antony}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Comparing the input pathways to the Noduli of the Central Complex of Army ants and Megalopta bee}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}