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  • Honeybees (partly marked) on the edge of a brood frame
Chair of Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology

Habenstein, Jens

Dr. Jens Habenstein

PostDoc
Zoology II / Rössler lab
Universität Würzburg
Biozentrum
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
Building: Biozentrum (B1)
Room: D124
Phone: +49 931 31 88118
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-6436
Link: Rössler lab
Portrait of Jens Habenstein

Individual members of insect societies often have different tasks which are related either to the phenotype, the age, or both. Cataglyphis desert ants undergo an age-related polyethism from interior worker with tasks like brood care and food processing inside the nest to predominantly visually guided foragers. Due to very distinct behavioral stages and brief transitions, Cataglyphis ants provide an excellent model organism to investigate the internal regulation of these behavioral transitions.

My research focuses on neuropeptides which might serve as potential modulators of these behavioral transitions. The aim is the mass spectrometry-based identification and localization of the neuropeptides in relation to the age. Additionally, the effect of specific manipulations of relevant neuropeptide titers (e.g. by neuropeptide injection or oral treatment) on the behavior of the ants will be investigated by proceeding behavioral assays.

  • Habenstein, J., Thamm, M., & Rössler, W. Neuropeptides as potential modulators of behavioral transitions in the ant <i>Cataglyphis nodus</i>. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 529, 3155–3170. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.25166
  • Habenstein, J., Schmitt, F., Liessem, S., Ly, A., Trede, D., Wegener, C., Predel, R., Rössler, W., & Neupert, S. Transcriptomic, peptidomic and mass spectrometry imaging analysis of the brain in the ant <i>Cataglyphis nodus</i>. Journal of Neurochemistry, 158, 391–412. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.15346
  • Habenstein, J., Amini, E., Grübel, K., el Jundi, B., & Rössler, W. The brain of <i>Cataglyphis</i> ants: neuronal organization and visual projections. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 528, 3479– 3506. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24934
  • Lyutova, R., Selcho, M., Pfeuffer, M., Segebarth, D., Habenstein, J., Rohwedder, A., Frantzmann, F., Wegener, C., Thum, A. S., & Pauls, D. Reward signaling in a recurrent circuit of dopaminergic neurons and peptidergic Kenyon cells. Nature Communications, 10(1), 3097-. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11092-1

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