What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this process. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they explain that by manipulating a specific gene, they can selectively inhibit neural circuits in bees and thus influence their work behavior.
Whether in human or bee societies, tasks must be reliably divided among members of the community for it to function properly. While humans consciously organize and distribute tasks, there is no central planning in a bee colony. Nevertheless, the organization of tasks among the bees (Apis mellifera) works well.
Depending on their age, worker bees perform different tasks: Young bees care for the queen and larvae. Subsequently, they perform construction tasks and guard the hive. Only late in life do they leave the hive to forage for food. The performance of the different tasks is controlled by the interaction of about 1 million neurons in the bee brain. However, how the nervous system controls this age-dependent task organization was previously unknown.
Clues from a single gene
Initial clues as to how this organization of tasks is controlled were provided by the HHU research group led by Professor Dr. Martin Beye from the Institute of Evolutionary Genetics in studies of the so-called doublesex gene. They showed that older worker bees in which the gene had been inactivated resumed caring for the queen and thus performed tasks they would normally perform only at a younger age.
As the doublesex gene is active only in specific neural circuits, this provided a research team led by Professor Beye and including researchers from the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main an opportunity to investigate the behavioral control mechanisms in bees. By specifically silencing the doublesex neurons—a neuron-silencing protein was co-expressed from the gene and selectively activated by feeding a specific substance—the researchers were able to inhibit the activity of the corresponding neural circuits in a targeted manner.
Silencing circuits changed behavior
Dr. Jana Seiler, lead author of the PNAS study, stated, "The older worker bees then resumed caring for the queen, which only younger bees would otherwise do. When the circuits were not inhibited, the bees exhibited their normal, age-dependent behavior. In this way, we were able to control which tasks the worker bees performed."
The researchers' findings show that a neural mechanism forms the basis for the organization of tasks in the bee colony. Inhibiting specific brain areas activates other neural circuits and the performance of other tasks. The results provide initial evidence that the exchange of information between neural circuits plays an important role in determining the tasks performed by bees.
Professor Beye said, "The ability to control the social behavior of bees offers us new opportunities to explore the fundamentals of innate behavioral diversity and social cooperation. The solution to the secret of how bees and other animals cooperate so well without a blueprint for work is likely hidden in the brain's neural circuits."
Publication details
Jana Seiler et al, Inhibitory modulation of age-dependent behavior through dsx -expressing cells in honeybees, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2604986123
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Citation: Bee brains reveal how colonies divide work without central planning (2026, July 20) retrieved 20 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bee-brains-reveal-colonies-central.html
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