#Ants have a specialized #communication processing center that has not been found in other social #insects.

#signaling #pheromones #GCaMP

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-ants-specialized-communication-center-social.html

GCaMP8 is out!

"Fast and sensitive GCaMP calcium indicators for imaging neural populations", by Y. Zhang, M. Rózsa, et al. 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05828-9

"‘jGCaMP8’ sensors, based on the calcium-binding protein calmodulin and a fragment of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, have ultra-fast kinetics (half-rise times of 2 ms) and the highest sensitivity for neural activity reported for a protein-based calcium sensor."

Tested in both larva and adult #Drosophila, and in mouse.

#neuroscience #GCaMP

Genetically encoded calcium indicators are becoming available in social insects.
After the first expression in honeybees (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.22.489138v2), now the first GCaMP-expressing ants have been created and used to study the coding of alarm pheromones in the antennal lobe.
#GECIs #GCaMP #twophoton #neuroscience #ants #olfaction #antennallobe #pheromones

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.29.522224v1