A defining feature of social insects is the fact that different individuals play different roles with respect to work and reproductive behavior, i.e., they belong to different, specialized castes. Because the different social insect castes develop from a common genetic background, differences in the timing and levels of gene activity in individuals must be key to this behavioral specialization. This raises the question of how these gene regulatory differences come about among individuals and how they shape behavioral diversity. The answer will provide crucial insights into the emergence and break down of cooperative social interactions. This study harnesses the extensive natural variation in social behavior found within and among 19 closely-related bee species. It will assess how gene regulation changes as social behavior is gained and lost. The project will also train high school, undergraduate and graduate students by involving them in research and by integrating research results into formal courses. It will also help in bee conservation though the creation of "bee hotels" with brochures explaining how the hotels help these declining species.
This research will test the hypothesis that social bees exhibit greater transcriptional complexity than solitary bees either through increased variation in gene expression and/or variation in transcriptional network connectivity. It will also characterize gene regulatory elements in social, solitary, and polymorphic bee species and examine patterns of selection on these elements. These studies will assess how (1) the timing and location of gene expression changes across social forms and castes, (2) how gene co-expression network organization changes, and (3) how regulatory elements change as social behavior is gained and lost. The results will provide fundamental insights into our understanding of the role of gene regulation in shaping natural variation in behavior and other complex traits.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
