Division of labor in honey bees is associated with transcriptional regulatory plasticity in the brain.

ABSTRACT: Studies in evolutionary and developmental biology show that relationships between transcription factors (TFs) and their target genes can be altered to result in novel regulatory relationships that generate phenotypic plasticity. We hypothesized that context-dependent shifts in the nervous system associated with behavior may also be linked to changes in TF-target relationships over physiological time scales. We tested this hypothesis using honey bee (Apis mellifera) division of labor as a model system by performing bioinformatic analyses of previously published brain transcriptomic profiles together with new RNAi and behavioral experiments. The bioinformatic analyses identified five TFs that exhibited strong signatures of regulatory plasticity as a function of division of labor. RNAi

SUBMITTER: Hamilton AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6679348 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature