A comparison of digital gene expression profiling and methyl DNA immunoprecipitation as methods for gene discovery in honeybee (Apis mellifera) behavioural genomic analyses.

ABSTRACT: The honey bee has a well-organized system of division of labour among workers. Workers typically progress through a series of discrete behavioural castes as they age, and this has become an important case study for exploring how dynamic changes in gene expression can influence behaviour. Here we applied both digital gene expression analysis and methyl DNA immunoprecipitation analysis to nurse, forager and reverted nurse bees (nurses that have returned to the nursing state after a period spent foraging) from the same colony in order to compare the outcomes of these different forms of genomic analysis. A total of 874 and 710 significantly differentially expressed genes were identified in forager/nurse and reverted nurse/forager comparisons respectively. Of these, 229 genes exhibited reversed

SUBMITTER: Guan C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3767799 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature