Projects (Norway)
Regulation of longevity: We want to better understand the regulatory mechanisms of honey bee somatic maintenance and the physiological changes that occur in aging bees. We focus on the worker bees’ transition from nest tasks to foraging, which is a highly plastic and reversible shift associated with an acceleration of senescence. Using e.g. RNA interference (RNAi) (PDF link), hormone binding assays and pharmacology, we address this question broadly. Our results suggest that associations between nutritional state, insulin-like peptide signaling, juvenile hormone and vitellogenin are in the center of the architecture.
Oxidative damage and cognitive impairment: Most organisms are subject to different pathophysiological conditions as they age and accrual of oxidative damage on the cellular level is a proposed hallmark of senescence. Using this marker, we have shown that cellular aging in the honey bee brain is better explained by social role than by chronological age. In collaboration with Dr. Ricarda Scheiner, Technical University of Berlin, we combine immunohistochemical assays with measurements of sensory sensitivity and cognitive ability to determine the plasticity of honey bee brain aging. Our emphasis is on how accumulation and remission of neuronal oxidative damage translates into changes in sensory- and cognitive function.
Structural plasticity of aging neurons: Neuronal cell death and associated decline in cognitive function often occur at advanced ages. However, moderate morphological changes such as dendritic and synaptic loss precede the irrevocable elimination of neurons. We use honey bees to understand the largely unknown structural plasticity of an aging brain on the cellular level. Our studies address the following issues: i) the impact of senescence on neuronal complexity in the brain; ii) the impact of oxidative damage on synaptic integrity. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Carsten Duch, and makes use of several methods of brain imaging, including laser scanning confocal and electron microscopy, and advanced software tools for 3D-image visualization and image analysis.
