Differential gene expression in queen-worker caste determination in bumble-bees.

ABSTRACT: Investigating how differential gene expression underlies caste determination in the social Hymenoptera is central to understanding how variation in gene expression underlies adaptive phenotypic diversity. We investigated for the first time the association between differential gene expression and queen-worker caste determination in the bumble-bee Bombus terrestris. Using suppression subtractive hybridization we isolated 12 genes that were differentially expressed in queen- and worker-destined larvae. We found that the sets of genes underlying caste differences in larvae and adults failed to overlap greatly. We also found that B. terrestris shares some of the genes whose differential expression is associated with caste determination in the honeybee, Apis mellifera, but their expression patte

SUBMITTER: Pereboom JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559810 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature