Bees can handle jet lag and environmental changes better than us. What’s the buzz?
Most humans are deeply impacted by changes in our daily schedules. Take for instance the time it takes shift workers to get used to their schedule, and the effects of sleep deprivation for new parents. Disturbance of the biological clock – the circadian rhythm – can also contribute to mood disorders (ask any new parent that one!). On a less severe scale, all international air travelers know of the “jet lag” effect.
Bees, however, have now been shown to be highly resilient to such change. Unlike humans, honey bees, can alter their biological rhythms easily – so they can make a successful “quick switch” in their daily routines, according to research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. When removed from their usual roles in the hive, the bees were seen to quickly and drastically change their biological rhythms.
The changes, are evident in both the bees’ behavior and in the “clock genes” that drive their internal biological clocks.
This study was done by by Prof. Guy Bloch of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior of the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University.Bloch and his colleagues Dr. Yair Shemesh, Ada Eban-Rothschild, and Mira Cohen. They chose to study bees in part because of their complex social environment. One role in bee society is the “nurse” (bees that care around the clock for larvae). This activity pattern is different from other bees and animals, whose levels rise and fall throughout the day.
Bloch and his team thought that changing the nurse bees’ social environment might alter their activity levels, so they separated them from their larvae. The researchers found that the bees’ cellular rhythms and behavior completely changed, matching a more typical circadian cycle. The opposite also was true, when other bees were transferred into a nursing function.
“Our findings show that circadian rhythms of honey bees are altered by signals from the brood that are transferred by close or direct contact,” Bloch said. “This flexibility in the bees’ clock is striking, given that humans and most other animals studied cannot sustain long periods of around-the-clock activity without deterioration in performance and an increase in disease.”
Because bees and mammals’ circadian clocks are similarly organized, the question arises as to whether the clocks of other animals also strongly depend on their social environments. The next step is to find just how social exchanges influence gene expressions. Further research into this question may have implications for humans who suffer from disturbances in their behavioral, sleeping and waking cycles.
Circadian rhythm, the body’s “internal clock,” regulates daily functions. A few “clock genes” control many actions, including the time of sleeping, eating and drinking, temperature regulation and hormone fluctuations. However, exactly how that clock is affected by — and affects — social interactions with other animals is unknown.
This research is published in the current edition of The Journal of Neuroscience and was supported by the Israeli Science Foundation, the Israel-U.S. Binational Science Foundation, and the German Israel Foundation.
