Comparative brain expression analysis of scouting behaviors across contexts

ABSTRACT: Individual differences in behaviour are often consistent across time and contexts, but it is not clear if such consistency is reflected at the molecular level. We explored this issue by studying scouting in honey bees in two different behavioural and ecological contexts: finding new sources of floral food resources and finding a new nest site. Brain gene expression profiles in food-source and nest-site scouts showed a mixture of similarities and differences. Class prediction and 'leave-one-out' cross-validation analyses revealed that a bees role as a scout in either context could be predicted with 92.5% success using 89 genes at minimum. We also found that genes related to four neurotransmitter systems were part of a shared brain molecular signature in both types of scouts, but the two typ

ORGANISM(S): Apis mellifera

SUBMITTER: Amy Cash Ahmed 

PROVIDER: E-MTAB-2918 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress