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

Kraft, Nadine

Nadine Kraft

PhD student
Zoology II / Rössler lab
Universität Würzburg
Biozentrum
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
Building: Biozentrum (B1)
Room: D124
Link: Rössler lab
Portrait of Nadine Kraft

The mushroom-body calyces in the brain of social hymenoptera represent highly plastic sensory integration centers which are ideally suited for the analysis of the neuronal basis of behavioral plasticity. As previously shown by numerous studies, a variety of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors may greatly affect the number and structure of neuronal microcircuits in the calyx, among which are age, learning and memory processes and sensory exposure. Using the honey bee as a model, I want to further analyze the connectivity and structural plasticity of these microcircuits by using different neuroanatomical techniques and imaging methods.

Current research projects are:

  • Establishing expansion microscopy as a method for the characterization of microcircuits in the mushroom-body calyx of honey bees

  • Analysis of structural connectivity of individual microcircuits

  • Structural plasticity of microcircuits after sensory exposure

  • Expansion microscopy in honeybee brains for high-resolution neuroanatomical analyses in social insects Kraft, Nadine; Muenz, Thomas S.; Reinhard, Sebastian; Werner, Christian; Sauer, Markus; Groh, Claudia; Rössler, Wolfgang in Cell and Tissue Research (2023).
  • A micro-CT-based standard brain atlas of the bumblebee Rother, Lisa; Kraft, Nadine; Smith, Dylan B.; el Jundi, Basil; Gill, Richard J.; Pfeiffer, Keram in Cell and Tissue Research (2021). 386 29–45.
  • Neuronal plasticity in the mushroom-body calyx of bumble bee workers during early adult development Kraft, Nadine; Spaethe, Johannes; Rössler, Wolfgang; Groh, Claudia in Developmental Neurobiology (2019). 79(4) 287–302.

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