The effect of pesticides in learning and memory of native Brazilian bees

• Grant number: 19/20408-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2020
• End date: May 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Santos do Nascimento
• Grantee: João Marcelo Robazzi Bignelli Valente Aguiar
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of pesticides in Agriculture is one of the causes for the bees disappearing crisis around the world. Most studies about the effect of these toxic products in the biology of bees, the main pollinator group, have focused in Apis mellifera as a model. These studies reveal that pesticides affect larval development, cause high mortality and interfere in these bees learning and memory. Some studies also reveal the effect of pesticides in Brazilian bees, but there is a knowledge gab around their impact in these insects cognition. Bees' cognitive abilities are extremely important for foraging, as they learn about the quantity and quality of food through information obtained from the floral signals, such as color and odor, which then are used as reward predictors. This project proposes to answer how pesticides affect the learning and memory of native Brazilian bees. First, we will train Meliponini bees to visit artificial flowers that can contain or not pesticides, to evaluate if they can perceive the presence of these toxic products in the flowers and, thus, the vulnerability of these insects to pesticides. Yet, we will train Meliponini bees under the olfactory conditioning protocol of proboscis extension response, which will allow a precise evaluation of the effect of sublethal doses of pesticides in the learning and memory of adult bees. We expect to find negative effects of these toxic products in the memory and learning of native bees from Brazil, a country that has been increasingly allowing the use of new pesticides in Agriculture. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BIGNELLI VALENTE AGUIAR, JOAO MARCELO ROBAZZI; MACIEL, ARTUR ANTUNES; SANTANA, PAMELA CRISTINA; TELLES, FRANCISMEIRE JANE; BERGAMO, PEDRO JOAQUIM; OLIVEIRA, PAULO EUGENIO; GARCIA BRITO, VINICIUS LOURENCO. Intrafloral Color Modularity in a Bee-Pollinated Orchid. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE, v. 11, NOV 9 2020. (19/20408-0)

BIGNELLI VALENTE AGUIAR, JOAO MARCELO ROBAZZI; FERREIRA, GABRIEL DE SOUZA; SANCHES, PATRICIA ALESSANDRA; SIMOES BENTO, JOSE MAURICIO; SAZIMA, MARLIES. What pollinators see does not match what they smell: Absence of color-fragrance association in the deceptive orchid Ionopsis utricularioides. Phytochemistry, v. 182, FEB 2021. (19/10620-2, 15/05919-8, 14/50871-0, 19/20408-0)

AGUIAR, JOAO MARCELO ROBAZZI BIGNELLI VALENTE; NOCELLI, ROBERTA CORNELIO FERREIRA; GIURFA, MARTIN; NASCIMENTO, FABIO SANTOS. Neonicotinoid effects on tropical bees: Imidacloprid impairs innate appetitive responsiveness, learning and memory in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata. Science of The Total Environment, v. 877, p. 8-pg., 2023-03-20. (17/21097-3, 21/05598-8, 19/20408-0)