2023-04-25 13:15:28
Training pets is normal, but when it comes to bees, is it even possible? Within behavioral science, Pavlov’s dog experiment is one of the best known. In this test, just before feeding the animal, the scientist rang a bell, so after a while, the dog was conditioned and associated that sound with the action of eating.
Using the olfactory memory of bees, a team of researchers from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), both institutions in Argentina, have managed to increase the yield of different agricultural crops through an increase in the efficiency of pollination carried out by bees.
For the CONICET and UBA researcher, Walter Farina, the possibility of training bees has been a possible option for more than 30 years. “Honey bees are highly social insects with an impressive olfactory memory. In the laboratory we managed to train them to associate a smell with a reward. In this way, we were able to improve pollination processes in specific crops”, says the doctor in biology, in dialogue with the CTyS-UNLaM Agency.
The team led by Farina at the UBA works on what is known as cognitive ecology and seeks to understand how the insects of a colony acquire the information that allows them to collect resources collectively. “When bees extract nectar from a flower, they regurgitate it and feed the ones that stayed in the hive. In these mouth-to-mouth contacts, thousands of individuals receive the perfume of the flower and generate a collective olfactory memory, a situation that allows them to identify that aroma even without having left the neighborhood”, she explains.
The researchers noted that odors learned in the social context of the hive bias bees’ foraging preference. It was then that they developed synthetic perfumes that simulate the flower of crops that we want to improve. “If the bee confuses it with the natural fragrance – for example of pear trees, apple trees, kiwis or blueberries – it associates it with the moment of reward and pollinates that flower over others of the native fauna”, details the researcher from the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neurosciences (IFIBYNE, attached to CONICET and UBA).
Two bees on a honeycomb. (Photo: Scott Bauer/USDA Agricultural Research Service)
the exact recipe
Reproducing the aroma of something that already exists is not an easy task, but if you also take into account that the ‘buyer’ of the fragrance is going to be a hive of bees, the task is a real challenge. “These insects have a much finer and more delicate olfactory sensitivity than that of humans. When developing the perfumes for the experiment, we had to achieve fragrances that were similar to them, not to us,” says the researcher.
Farina, a professor at the UBA Department of Biodiversity and Experimental Biology, indicates: “The first thing we had to determine was the combination of pure and volatile compounds that make the fragrance of the crop in question unique. By evaluating the odor profiles, we analyzed which are the most prevalent and, from there, we made a selection of possible prototypes.”
Once the team confirmed that the bee confuses this synthetic perfume with the natural flower, the field work began. “We wanted the procedure to feel natural and standard practice for the beekeeper and found we simply had to feed the hives a sugary solution mixed with this fragrance. Once they get used to the smell, what is known as ‘long-term memory formation’ takes place. In other words, the effect lasts, for example, throughout the flowering of the crop without the need for reinforcements”, points out the biologist.
A project with impact
Science has long times and this project was no exception. “More than 15 years ago we began research on this topic. However, we did it with a look that pointed to basic science, that is, trying to delve into the knowledge of the social biology of the bee. Over time, it had an edge of technology transfer, and today, this knowledge is marketed and used as a tool in a company that offers pollination services worldwide”, Farina proudly states.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ensures that pollinators such as bees affect 35 percent of agricultural production worldwide. In fact, 75 percent of fruit or seed crops that serve as food or for the creation of medicines depend, at least in part, on pollinators.
“Bees are my life,” says Farina. The biologist has been working on this study model for more than 30 years and he has always found it surprising, especially since they have extremely complex communication systems. “We have to understand them to be able to take advantage of their presence on the planet and, furthermore, continue studying other species such as native bumblebees or stingless bees located in subtropical areas,” concludes the specialist. (Source: Magalí de Diego (CTyS-UNLaM Agency))
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