Similar Datasets
Project description:Brain transcriptomic differences in response to social opportunity and social challenge in honey bees
| PRJNA450090 | ENA
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
2017-03-29 | GSE85878 | GEO
Project description:We studied behavioral, brain transcriptomic and epigenetic responses of honey bees to social challenge. Bees were exposed to two intruders at different intervals. The initial exposure caused two behavioral effects at the individual level: an increase in the intensity of aggression toward a second intruder at 30 and 60 minutes, and an increased probability of responding aggressively toward a second intruder that persisted for two hours. The shorter-lived response was associated with one pattern of gene expression in the mushroom bodies, highlighted by genes related to cytoskeleton remodeling. The longer-lived response was associated with a different pattern; highlighted by genes related to hormones, stress response and transcription factors. Histone profiling revealed few changes in chromatin accessibility in response to social challenge; most differentially expressed genes were “ready” to be activated. These results demonstrate how biological embedding of a social challenge involves changes in the neurogenomic state to influence future behavior.
2017-03-29 | GSE85877 | GEO
Project description:We studied behavioral, brain transcriptomic and epigenetic responses of honey bees to social challenge. Bees were exposed to two intruders at different intervals. The initial exposure caused two behavioral effects at the individual level: an increase in the intensity of aggression toward a second intruder at 30 and 60 minutes, and an increased probability of responding aggressively toward a second intruder that persisted for two hours. The shorter-lived response was associated with one pattern of gene expression in the mushroom bodies, highlighted by genes related to cytoskeleton remodeling. The longer-lived response was associated with a different pattern; highlighted by genes related to hormones, stress response and transcription factors. Histone profiling revealed few changes in chromatin accessibility in response to social challenge; most differentially expressed genes were “ready” to be activated. These results demonstrate how biological embedding of a social challenge involves changes in the neurogenomic state to influence future behavior.
2017-03-29 | GSE85876 | GEO
Project description:Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) suffer from many brood pathogens, including viruses. Despite considerable research, the molecular responses and dynamics of honey bee pupae to viral pathogens remain poorly understood. Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) is emerging as a model virus since its association with severe colony losses. Using worker pupae, we studied the transcriptomic and methylomic consequences of IAPV infection over three distinct time points after inoculation. Contrasts of gene expression and 5 mC DNA methylation profiles between IAPV-infected and control individuals at these time points - corresponding to the pre-replicative (5 h), replicative (20 h), and terminal (48 h) phase of infection - indicate that profound immune responses and distinct manipulation of host molecular processes accompany the lethal progression of this virus. We identify the temporal dynamics of the transcriptomic response to with more genes differentially expressed in the replicative and terminal phases than in the pre-replicative phase. However, the number of differentially methylated regions decreased dramatically from the pre-replicative to the replicative and terminal phase. Several cellular pathways experienced hyper- and hypo-methylation in the pre-replicative phase and later dramatically increased in gene expression at the terminal phase, including the MAPK, Jak-STAT, Hippo, mTOR, TGF-beta signaling pathways, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, and spliceosome. These affected biological functions suggest that adaptive host responses to combat the virus are mixed with viral manipulations of the host to increase its own reproduction, all of which are involved in anti-viral immune response, cell growth, and proliferation. Comparative genomic analyses with other studies of viral infections of honey bees and fruit flies indicated that similar immune pathways are shared. Our results further suggest that dynamic DNA methylation responds to viral infections quickly, regulating subsequent gene activities. Our study provides new insights of molecular mechanisms involved in epigenetic that can serve as foundation for the long-term goal to develop anti-viral strategies for honey bees, the most important commercial pollinator.
| S-EPMC7546774 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Small, non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in many biological processes, including the development of the nervous system. However, the roles of miRNAs in natural behavioral and neuronal plasticity are not well understood. To help address this we characterized the microRNA transcriptome in the adult worker honey bee head and investigated whether changes in microRNA expression levels in the brain are associated with division of labor among honey bees, a well-established model for socially regulated behavior. We determined that several miRNAs were downregulated in bees that specialize on brood care (nurses) relative to foragers. Additional experiments showed that this downregulation is dependent upon social context; it only occurred when nurse bees were in colonies that also contained foragers. Analyses of conservation patterns of brain-expressed miRNAs across Hymenoptera suggest a role for certain miRNAs in the evolution of the Aculeata, which includes all the eusocial hymenopteran species. Our results support the intriguing hypothesis that miRNAs are important regulators of social behavior at both developmental and evolutionary time scales.
| S-EPMC3404264 | biostudies-literature
Project description: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 transcriptomic signature of aggression in the brain is similar to the neuromolecular response to acute predator threat, exposure to a high-aggression environment as an adult, or adult behavioral maturation. RESULTS:Across all three tissues assessed, genes that are differentially expressed as a function of aggression significantly overlap with genes whose expression is modulated by a variety of pathogens and parasitic feeding. In the fat body, and to some degree the midgut, our data specifically support the hypothesis that low aggression resembles a diseased or parasitized state. However, we find little evidence of active infection in individuals from the low aggression group. We also find little evidence that the brain molecular signature of aggression is enriched for genes modulated by social cues that induce aggression in adults. However, we do find evidence that genes associated with adult behavioral maturation are enriched in our brain samples. CONCLUSIONS:Results support the hypothesis that low aggression resembles a molecular state of infection. This pattern is most robust in the peripheral fat body, an immune responsive tissue in the honey bee. We find no evidence of acute infection in bees from the low aggression group, suggesting the physiological state characterizing low aggression may instead predispose bees to negative health outcomes when they are exposed to additional stressors. The similarity of molecular signatures associated with the seemingly disparate traits of aggression and disease suggests that these characteristics may, in fact, be intimately tied.
| S-EPMC6937707 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHoney bees are known for several striking social behaviors, including a complex pattern of behavioral maturation that gives rise to an age-related colony division of labor and a symbolic dance language, by which successful foragers communicate the location of attractive food sources to their nestmates. Our understanding of honey bees is mostly based on studies of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, even though there are 9-10 other members of genus Apis, showing interesting variations in social behavior relative to A. mellifera. To facilitate future in-depth genomic and molecular level comparisons of behavior across the genus, we performed a microarray analysis of brain gene expression for A. mellifera and three key species found in Asia, A. cerana, A. florea and A. dorsata.ResultsFor each species we compared brain gene expression patterns between foragers and adult one-day-old bees on an A. mellifera cDNA microarray and calculated within-species gene expression ratios to facilitate cross-species analysis. The number of cDNA spots showing hybridization fluorescence intensities above the experimental threshold was reduced by an average of 16% in the Asian species compared to A. mellifera, but an average of 71% of genes on the microarray were available for analysis. Brain gene expression profiles between foragers and one-day-olds showed differences that are consistent with a previous study on A. mellifera and were comparable across species. Although 1772 genes showed significant differences in expression between foragers and one-day-olds, only 218 genes showed differences in forager/one-day-old expression between species (p < 0.001). Principal Components Analysis revealed dominant patterns of expression that clearly distinguished between the four species but did not reflect known differences in behavior and ecology. There were species differences in brain expression profiles for functionally related groups of genes.ConclusionWe conclude that the A. mellifera cDNA microarray can be used effectively for cross-species comparisons within the genus. Our results indicate that there is a widespread conservation of the molecular processes in the honey bee brain underlying behavioral maturation. Species differences in brain expression profiles for functionally related groups of genes provide possible clues to the basis of behavioral variation in the genus.
| S-EPMC1929079 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The drug phenobarbital induces cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450) gene expression in many animals, but no changes in P450 expression, or expression of any detoxification genes, were observed in worker honey bees fed on phenobarbital-candy relative to bees fed plain candy. Keywords: Expression profiling by array
2012-05-12 | GSE34029 | GEO
Project description:In complex societies, individuals' roles are reflected by interactions with other conspecifics. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) generally change tasks as they age, but developmental trajectories of individuals can vary drastically due to physiological and environmental factors. We introduce a succinct descriptor of an individual's social network that can be obtained without interfering with the colony. This 'network age' accurately predicts task allocation, survival, activity patterns, and future behavior. We analyze developmental trajectories of multiple cohorts of individuals in a natural setting and identify distinct developmental pathways and critical life changes. Our findings suggest a high stability in task allocation on an individual level. We show that our method is versatile and can extract different properties from social networks, opening up a broad range of future studies. Our approach highlights the relationship of social interactions and individual traits, and provides a scalable technique for understanding how complex social systems function.
| S-EPMC7889932 | biostudies-literature