Cargando…

Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times

Daily activities within an ant colony need precise temporal organization, and an endogenous clock appears to be essential for such timing processes. A clock drives locomotor rhythms in isolated workers in a number of ant species, but its involvement in activities displayed in the social context is u...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mildner, Stephanie, Roces, Flavio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5242425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28099496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169244
_version_ 1782496329136603136
author Mildner, Stephanie
Roces, Flavio
author_facet Mildner, Stephanie
Roces, Flavio
author_sort Mildner, Stephanie
collection PubMed
description Daily activities within an ant colony need precise temporal organization, and an endogenous clock appears to be essential for such timing processes. A clock drives locomotor rhythms in isolated workers in a number of ant species, but its involvement in activities displayed in the social context is unknown. We compared locomotor rhythms in isolated individuals and behavioral rhythms in the social context of workers of the ant Camponotus rufipes. Both forager and nurse workers exhibited circadian rhythms in locomotor activity under constant conditions, indicating the involvement of an endogenous clock. Activity was mostly nocturnal and synchronized with the 12:12h light-dark-cycle. To evaluate whether rhythmicity was maintained in the social context and could be synchronized with non-photic zeitgebers such as feeding times, daily behavioral activities of single workers inside and outside the nest were quantified continuously over 24 hours in 1656 hours of video recordings. Food availability was limited to a short time window either at day or at night, thus mimicking natural conditions of temporally restricted food access. Most foragers showed circadian foraging behavior synchronized with food availability, either at day or nighttime. When isolated thereafter in single locomotor activity monitors, foragers mainly displayed arrhythmicity. Here, high mortality suggested potential stressful effects of the former restriction of food availability. In contrast, nurse workers showed high overall activity levels in the social context and performed their tasks all around the clock with no circadian pattern, likely to meet the needs of the brood. In isolation, the same individuals exhibited in turn strong rhythmic activity and nocturnality. Thus, endogenous activity rhythms were inhibited in the social context, and timing of daily behaviors was flexibly adapted to cope with task demands. As a similar socially-mediated plasticity in circadian rhythms was already shown in honey bees, the temporal organization in C. rufipes and honey bees appear to share similar basic features.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5242425
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-52424252017-02-06 Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times Mildner, Stephanie Roces, Flavio PLoS One Research Article Daily activities within an ant colony need precise temporal organization, and an endogenous clock appears to be essential for such timing processes. A clock drives locomotor rhythms in isolated workers in a number of ant species, but its involvement in activities displayed in the social context is unknown. We compared locomotor rhythms in isolated individuals and behavioral rhythms in the social context of workers of the ant Camponotus rufipes. Both forager and nurse workers exhibited circadian rhythms in locomotor activity under constant conditions, indicating the involvement of an endogenous clock. Activity was mostly nocturnal and synchronized with the 12:12h light-dark-cycle. To evaluate whether rhythmicity was maintained in the social context and could be synchronized with non-photic zeitgebers such as feeding times, daily behavioral activities of single workers inside and outside the nest were quantified continuously over 24 hours in 1656 hours of video recordings. Food availability was limited to a short time window either at day or at night, thus mimicking natural conditions of temporally restricted food access. Most foragers showed circadian foraging behavior synchronized with food availability, either at day or nighttime. When isolated thereafter in single locomotor activity monitors, foragers mainly displayed arrhythmicity. Here, high mortality suggested potential stressful effects of the former restriction of food availability. In contrast, nurse workers showed high overall activity levels in the social context and performed their tasks all around the clock with no circadian pattern, likely to meet the needs of the brood. In isolation, the same individuals exhibited in turn strong rhythmic activity and nocturnality. Thus, endogenous activity rhythms were inhibited in the social context, and timing of daily behaviors was flexibly adapted to cope with task demands. As a similar socially-mediated plasticity in circadian rhythms was already shown in honey bees, the temporal organization in C. rufipes and honey bees appear to share similar basic features. Public Library of Science 2017-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5242425/ /pubmed/28099496 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169244 Text en © 2017 Mildner, Roces http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mildner, Stephanie
Roces, Flavio
Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title_full Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title_fullStr Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title_full_unstemmed Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title_short Plasticity of Daily Behavioral Rhythms in Foragers and Nurses of the Ant Camponotus rufipes: Influence of Social Context and Feeding Times
title_sort plasticity of daily behavioral rhythms in foragers and nurses of the ant camponotus rufipes: influence of social context and feeding times
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5242425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28099496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169244
work_keys_str_mv AT mildnerstephanie plasticityofdailybehavioralrhythmsinforagersandnursesoftheantcamponotusrufipesinfluenceofsocialcontextandfeedingtimes
AT rocesflavio plasticityofdailybehavioralrhythmsinforagersandnursesoftheantcamponotusrufipesinfluenceofsocialcontextandfeedingtimes