Whether a bee is responsible for buzzing around flowers or nursing the queen may be up to the bee’s DNA composition. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered a link between a bee’s role in the hive and reversible chemical tags attached to their genes.
Previous research in epigenetics — the study of external influences on genes — has shown that DNA methylation determines gene expression. The Johns Hopkins study is the first to link DNA methylation to an organism’s behaviour as a whole.
One of the examples cited in the study involved a bee initially destined to become a nurse. It could change its job to that of a forager searching for pollen outside of the hive thanks to a shift in methylation patterns in its DNA.
A team of scientists led by Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins and Gro Amdam of Arizona State University, analyzed the differences in methylation patterns amongst bees of varying roles. They tested for the permanency of the methylation patterns by removing nurses from the hive while the foragers were away on their pollen missions. After the foragers returned, they appeared to have noticed the nursing shortage and half of the original foragers took on the nurses’ responsibilities, and the change was precisely reflected in their DNA methylation patterns.
Continued study in epigenetics may lead to an understanding of how human biology affects behaviour in terms of addiction, learning, stress response, and memory. Eventually scientists hope to suppress undesired epigenetic markers for physical and psychological diseases.
Source: Science Daily
