PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Desert locust plagues threaten the food security of millions. Central to their formation is crowding-induced plasticity, with social phenotypes changing from cryptic (solitarious) to swarming (gregarious). Here, we elucidate the implications of this transition on foraging decisions and corresponding neural circuits. We use behavioral experiments and Bayesian modeling to decompose the multi-modal facets of foraging, revealing olfactory social cues as critical. To this end, we investigate how corresponding odors are encoded in the locust olfactory system using in-vivo calcium imaging. We discover crowding-dependent synergistic interactions between food-related and social odors distributed across stable combinatorial response maps. The observed synergy was specific to the gregarious phase and manifested in distinct odor response motifs. Our results suggest a crowding-induced modulation of the locust olfactory system that enhances food detection in swarms. Overall, we demonstrate how linking sensory adaptations to behaviorally relevant tasks can improve our understanding of social modulation in non-model organisms.
摘要：
沙漠蝗灾威胁着数百万人的粮食安全。它们形成的核心是拥挤引起的可塑性，社会表型从隐秘（孤独）变为群居（群居）。这里,我们阐明了这种转变对觅食决策和相应神经回路的影响。我们使用行为实验和贝叶斯建模来分解觅食的多模态方面，揭示嗅觉社会线索是关键的。为此,我们使用体内钙成像研究了蝗虫嗅觉系统中相应的气味是如何编码的。我们发现在稳定的组合反应图中分布的与食物相关的气味和社会气味之间存在与拥挤相关的协同相互作用。观察到的协同作用特定于群居阶段，并表现为不同的气味响应基序。我们的结果表明，拥挤引起的蝗虫嗅觉系统的调节可以增强群中的食物检测。总的来说,我们展示了如何将感觉适应与行为相关的任务联系起来，可以提高我们对非模式生物社会调节的理解。
