Insights into the Transcriptional Architecture of Behavioral Plasticity in the Honey Bee Apis mellifera.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee colonies exhibit an age-related division of labor, with worker bees performing discrete sets of behaviors throughout their lifespan. These behavioral states are associated with distinct brain transcriptomic states, yet little is known about the regulatory mechanisms governing them. We used CAGEscan (a variant of the Cap Analysis of Gene Expression technique) for the first time to characterize the promoter regions of differentially expressed brain genes during two behavioral states (brood care (aka "nursing") and foraging) and identified transcription factors (TFs) that may govern their expression. More than half of the differentially expressed TFs were associated with motifs enriched in the promoter regions of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), suggesting they are regulators

SUBMITTER: Khamis AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4466890 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature