# Representation and modulation of social information in the ant chemosensory system

> **NIH NIH R01** · ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $447,905

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Social insects show robust and complex behaviors, and have served as important study systems in ethology
for decades. However, because they are not genetically tractable, researchers have not been able to study
these behaviors at the level of brain circuitry with cutting-edge neurogenetic tools. The proposed work will
pioneer such tools in the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi, a species that uniquely combines experimental
amenability with the fascinating behavior of social insects. It will then address an important biological question:
how does variation in neural responsiveness give rise to consistent differences in how individuals respond to
social and environmental stimuli? O. biroi is particularly suitable to study this question for a number of reasons.
First, the ants reproduce asexually and clonally, implying that behavioral differences arise from phenotypic
plasticity, rather than genetic differences. Second, unlike in conventional model systems like Drosophila or
mice, differences in behavioral propensities are adaptive because they give rise to stable division of labor in a
colony context. Accordingly, these differences are robust and predictable, and they have received a lot of
theoretical and empirical attention at the behavioral level. Given that ants communicate almost exclusively via
pheromones, we will focus on the antennal lobe, the primary processing area of chemosensory information in
the insect brain, analogous to the mammalian olfactory bulb. In Aim 1, we will generate transgenic lines
expressing the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP in the antennal lobe to enable live imaging of
neural activity with two-photon microscopy. We will also generate lines expressing the photoactivatable
fluorescent protein CaMPARI2, enabling stable labeling of neurons active in freely behaving animals. In Aim 2,
we will use these tools to create a functionally annotated map of chemosensory representation in the ant
antennal lobe. We will also use single-cell RNA-sequencing of labelled neurons to identify odorant receptors
responding to pheromones. We will then use the promoters of these receptors to generate additional, narrowly
targeted transgenic lines. In Aim 3, we will study how differences in neural representation and sensitivity
correlate with plastic differences in behavioral responses to identical social stimuli. Based on these data, we
will build a predictive theoretical model of division of labor in insect societies. On a fundamental level, our
results on the modulation of sensory perception will also inform our understanding of human disorders
involving abnormal sensory sensitivity, such as autism and schizophrenia. Finally, we will make the tools and
protocols developed under this proposal available to the scientific community, greatly advancing the field of
social insect neuroscience and opening up a vast new experimental space. The robust and expansive
behavioral repertoire of social insects combined with the...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10461931
- **Project number:** 5R01NS123899-02
- **Recipient organization:** ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Kronauer
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $447,905
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10461931

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10461931, Representation and modulation of social information in the ant chemosensory system (5R01NS123899-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10461931. Licensed CC0.

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