Effects of Aversive Conditioning on Expression of Physiological Stress in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)

Abstract 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.