The image on the left shows how the honey bee brain is positioned inside the head. The image on the right shows a cross-section of the brain. The gray shaded area is the mushroom bodies (this region comprises two symmetrical structures, one on each hemisphere of the brain, and is named for its shape!). The honey bee brain also has specific regions that process visual and olfactory information. These areas send information to the mushroom bodies, so this region may help assemble a complete picture of the sensory world that the bee experiences. This region is also involved in learning. B1. Considering what you know about nursing and foraging behaviors, suggest a difference in what and/or how much information each of these brain regions might be receiving in nurses and in foragers? Visual region (optic lobes) Olfactory region (antennal lobes) Mushroom bodies B2. Imagine a single neuron in the bee brain that has to transmit more information in when the bee is a forager than when she is a nurse. a. Suggest a brain region that this neuron might be found in, and justify your answer. b. Recalling what you know about Amfor protein’s function, suggest how Amfor could be involved in the hypothetical neuron’s changing role. C. Experiment 1: Is Amfor in the honey bee brain? The step in investigating the possible relationship between and honey bee behavior was to Amfor look at whether the gene is expressed (whether its mRNA and related protein are made) in the brain. To do so, researchers used a technique called hybridization. in situ In situ hybridization works because of one of the chemical properties of nucleic acids—the strands of complementary DNA or RNA strands attract each other. When researchers want to find out whether a particular gene is being expressed in a particular tissue, they can create many copies of a single strand of DNA that is complementary to the mRNA that they want to find. These DNA strands also have a built-in dye that can be used to show the location of the mRNA . Researchers can then take a slice of preserved tissue and wash the labeled DNA strands (called over it; the probe will stick (“hybridize”) to “probes”) any copies of the matching mRNA within the tissue.
The image on the left shows how the honey bee brain is positioned inside the head. The image on the right shows a cross-section of the brain. The gray shaded area is the mushroom bodies (this region comprises two symmetrical structures, one on each hemisphere of the brain, and is named for its shape!). The honey bee brain also has specific regions that process visual and olfactory information. These areas send information to the mushroom bodies, so this region may help assemble a complete picture of the sensory world that the bee experiences. This region is also involved in learning. B1. Considering what you know about nursing and foraging behaviors, suggest a difference in what and/or how much information each of these brain regions might be receiving in nurses and in foragers? Visual region (optic lobes) Olfactory region (antennal lobes) Mushroom bodies B2. Imagine a single neuron in the bee brain that has to transmit more information in when the bee is a forager than when she is a nurse. a. Suggest a brain region that this neuron might be found in, and justify your answer. b. Recalling what you know about Amfor protein’s function, suggest how Amfor could be involved in the hypothetical neuron’s changing role. C. Experiment 1: Is Amfor in the honey bee brain? The step in investigating the possible relationship between Amfor and honey bee behavior was to look at whether the gene is expressed (whether its mRNA and related protein are made) in the brain. To do so, researchers used a technique called in situ hybridization. In situ hybridization works because of one of the chemical properties of nucleic acids—the strands of complementary DNA or RNA strands attract each other. When researchers want to find out whether a particular gene is being expressed in a particular tissue, they can create many copies of a single strand of DNA that is complementary to the mRNA that they want to find. These DNA strands also have a built-in dye that can be used to show the location of the mRNA . Researchers can then take a slice of preserved tissue and wash the labeled DNA strands (called “probes”) over it; the probe will stick (“hybridize”) to any copies of the matching mRNA within the tissue.
U8_L2_StudentSheet_Techniques.docx