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Honey bees are a commonly used species for alcohol research due to their genome being fully sequenced, their behavioral changes following consumption, and their preference for alcohol. The purpose of this article is to provide a preliminary examination of the genetic expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and big potassium ion channel protein (BKP) in honey bees following the consumption of either 0%, 2.5%, 5%, or 10% ethanol (EtOH) solutions. The foraging behaviors of the bees were observed and recorded through their return and drinking times. There were significant differences in the return and drinking times between some of the groups. The bees in the 10% condition took significantly longer to return compared to the other groups. Additionally, the bees in the 5% group spent significantly more time drinking compared to the bees in the control (0%) group. There were no significant differences in HSP70 or BKP between the different ethanol groups. Cumulatively, these findings suggest that, while bees may exhibit behavioral differences, the differences in gene expression may not be observed at the transcriptional level.

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Ethanol consumption has been shown to have many deleterious effects, including behavioral alterations, motor deficits, reduction in inhibition, and alteration of neurochemical expression. These effects occur in the wide variety of species that consume ethanol. Although studies have examined aversive conditioning in honey bees (Apis mellifera), few have examined the role of intoxication on the acquisition of learning in such paradigms. The current study continues a line of research using honey bees as a model to explore the behavioral effects of ethanol toxicity. A passive avoidance task is used to explore how increasing dosages of ethanol affects the ability of honey bees to perform this task. The results show that honey bees exposed to higher concentrations of ethanol have slower passive avoidance acquisition than bees exposed to lower concentrations under the same conditions. Bees not experiencing aversive stimuli displayed no difference from baseline behavior when exposed to varying concentrations of ethanol. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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Stress is defined as any deviation from an organism's baseline physiological levels. Therefore, introduction of new stimuli and information, such as in learning, can be defined as a stressor. A large body of research exists examining the role that stress plays in learning, but virtually none addresses whether or not learning itself is a measurable cause of stress. The current study used a wide variety of learning centric stress responses. Researchers examined changes in expression of ten stress and learning related genes in various physiological systems in domesticated honey bees (Apis mellifera) as a result of exposure to an aversive conditioning task. Gene expression was examined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction following the learning task. Results indicate that learning affects expression of some stress related genes.

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BACKGROUND: Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning is a highly specialized form of conditioning found across taxa that leads to avoidance of an initially neutral stimulus, such as taste or odor, that is associated with, but is not the cause of, a detrimental health condition. This study examines if honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) develop ethanol (EtOH)-induced CTA. METHODS: Restrained bees were first administered a sucrose solution that was cinnamon scented, lavender scented, or unscented, and contained either 0, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20% EtOH. Then, 30 minutes later, we used a proboscis extension response (PER) conditioning procedure where the bees were taught to associate either cinnamon odor, lavender odor, or an air-puff with repeated sucrose feedings. For some bees, the odor of the previously consumed EtOH solution was the same as the odor associated with sucrose in the conditioning procedure. If bees are able to learn EtOH-induced CTA, they should show an immediate low level of response to odors previously associated with EtOH. RESULTS: We found that bees did not develop CTA despite the substantial inhibitory and aversive effects EtOH has on behavior. Instead, bees receiving a conditioning odor that was previously associated with EtOH showed an immediate high level of response. While this demonstrates bees are capable of one-trial learning common to CTA experiments, this high level of response is the opposite of what would occur if the bees developed a CTA. Responding on subsequent trials also showed a general inhibitory effect of EtOH. Finally, we found that consumption of cinnamon extract reduced the effects of EtOH. CONCLUSIONS: The honey bees' lack of learned avoidance to EtOH mirrors that seen in human alcoholism. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of honey bees as an insect model for EtOH consumption.

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