The transcriptomic signature of low aggression in honey bees resembles a response to infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Behavior reflects an organism's health status. Many organisms display a generalized suite of behaviors that indicate infection or predict infection susceptibility. We apply this concept to honey bee aggression, a behavior that has been associated with positive health outcomes in previous studies. We sequenced the transcriptomes of the brain, fat body, and midgut of adult sibling worker bees who developed as pre-adults in relatively high versus low aggression colonies. Previous studies showed that this pre-adult experience impacts both aggressive behavior and resilience to pesticides. We performed enrichment analyses on differentially expressed genes to determine whether variation in aggression resembles the molecular response to infection. We further assessed whether the

SUBMITTER: Rittschof CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6937707 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature