Exploring the Roles of Genetics and the Epigenetic Mechanism DNA Methylation in Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Behavior

The discovery of experience dependent DNA methylation modulation in the brain of adult organisms revealed a layer of transcriptional control, beyond currently active signaling cascades, that can facilitate the modification of an adult organisms behavior over a significant proportion of its lifespan....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHandbook of Neurobehavioral Genetics and Phenotyping pp. 417 - 442
Main Authors Burden, Christina M, Bobek, Jonathan E
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published United States John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated 2017
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Subjects
animal behavior research
Apis mellifera
BIOLOGY, LIFE SCIENCES
DNA methylation
DNA methyltransferases
epigenetics techniques
genetics
honey bee
transcriptional control
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Summary:The discovery of experience dependent DNA methylation modulation in the brain of adult organisms revealed a layer of transcriptional control, beyond currently active signaling cascades, that can facilitate the modification of an adult organisms behavior over a significant proportion of its lifespan. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one of the best studied social insects. This chapter discusses the honey bee as an example of an effective model organism for studying the genetic bases of behavior and the application of epigenetics techniques to animal behavior research. It then discusses some genomic techniques and DNA methylation assays that can be applied to experiments investigating the genetic and epigenetic bases of behavior. The chapter reviews some general groups of assays, with an emphasis on cutting‐edge techniques, that can be applied to animal behavior research. A more sophisticated way to block DNA methylation is through the use of RNAi to knock down the DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs).
ISBN:9781118540718
1118540719
DOI:10.1002/9781118540770.ch16