The neurobiology of highly social animals has evolved to support cooperation, communication and social cognition. These phenomena are broadly important for normal social interactions, yet we know little of their cellular foundation in the nervous system. For eusocial insects, like ants, the chemosensory system is the gateway to communication. Ants share information encoded as large arrays of pheromones which are received and processed by highly advanced olfactory systems among insects. My research uses state-of-the-art neurogenetic tools to study the cellular basis of chemical communication in the nervous system of the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi). These ants engage in complex social behaviors not displayed by conventional model organisms, yet the experimental accessibility of the clonal raider ant provides a powerful platform for mechanistic neuroscience studies.
Peripheral olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) are necessary for pheromone perception and the production of normal social behaviors in ants. These cells project axons to a central olfactory processing area called the antennal lobe (AL) where they coalesce into globular structures called olfactory glomeruli and form a topographic map for the representation of the chemosensory environment. With approximately 500 olfactory glomeruli, the clonal raider ant AL is more complex than many other insects and is even evocative of the olfactory bulb in the brain of mammals (Drosophila have ~50 AL glomeruli, for reference). Here, I use transgenic clonal raider ants and imaging approaches to shine light on how AL organization is adapted as a key processing center for communication in this organism.
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