What is it about?

Honeybee colonies rely on a remarkable division of labor. Young worker bees care for the queen, while older workers gradually switch to other tasks, such as brood care and later foraging. How the brain controls this age-related transition has remained largely unknown. In this study, we identified a neuronal mechanism that contributes to this shift. By combining CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing with a chemogenetic approach, we temporarily inhibited a specific population of neurons. As a result, older worker bees reverted to behaviors that are normally displayed only by younger workers, demonstrating that neuronal activity helps determine which tasks individual bees perform.

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Why is it important?

Understanding how the brain organizes behavior is one of the central questions in biology. Honeybees provide an exceptional model because thousands of individuals coordinate their work without centralized control. Our findings show that age-dependent division of labor is actively regulated by neuronal activity rather than being a fixed consequence of age alone. In addition, this study establishes the first chemogenetic approach in honeybees, providing a powerful new tool to investigate how specific neurons regulate complex social behavior.

Perspectives

This work provides a foundation for dissecting the neuronal circuits that control social behavior in honeybees. The chemogenetic toolkit established in this study will enable future research to investigate how different neuronal populations interact to regulate division of labor, communication, and other complex social behaviors in eusocial insects. More broadly, these findings contribute to our understanding of how brains generate flexible behavior in animal societies.

Jana Seiler
Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf

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This page is a summary of: Inhibitory modulation of age-dependent behavior through dsx -expressing cells in honeybees, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2604986123.
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