| Epigenetic regulation of phenotypic plasticity, behaviour and environmental influences in honey bees
The ability to produce different phenotypes and behaviors from the same genome as a result of environmental influences is widespread among animals, but remains one of the key unresolved questions in biology. The honey bee queen/worker dimorphism is the best known case of striking developmental polymorphisms that result from differential feeding with royal jelly. In spite of being genetically identical, honey bee workers and queens are virtually two different organisms with distinct morphological and physiological features, contrasting reproductive capabilities and strikingly diverse life spans. The honey bees use an epigenetic mechanism called DNA methylation to modulate global gene expression underlying these diet-induced alterations. Our focus is on epigenetic integration of environmental and genomic signals that shape these conditional phenotypes and the associated flexible behaviors that arise from them. Our studies have the potential to help in understanding the nutritional basis of epigenetic reprogramming in humans.
Selected publications
Kucharski, R, Maleszka, J., Foret, S. Maleszka, R (2008) Nutritional control of reproductive status in honey bees via DNA methylation. Science. 319:1827-1830.
Maleszka, R (2008) Epigenetic integration of environmental and genomic signals in honey bees: the critical interplay of nutritional, brain and reproductive networks. Epigenetics, vol. 3, issue 4
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