Nov 24, 2010
Did you know that worker bees and queen bees have exactly the same DNA?
Although they look and behave differently, at birth they have the same genome. Young queen larvae are fed a diet of Royal Jelly, a substance secreted by the worker bees which includes B-complex vitamins, proteins, sugars and fatty acids. This concoction not only feeds the queen bees, it turns on and off various genes with what is known as epigentic effects. Epigenetic effects - meaning "above the genome" - alter gene expression without effecting the genetic code, and are not passed on to future generations. They are the reason why cells in different parts of the body do different things. For example, liver genes are turned on in your liver but not elsewhere, even though every cell in your body contains all your DNA information. For humans, much of this happens before we are born.
The recent report The Honey Bee Epigenomes: Differential Methylation of Brain DNA in Queens and Workers, by Professor Ryszard Maleszka from The Australian National University’s College of Medicine, Biology and Environment and colleagues, details the extensive molecular differences in over 550 genes in the brains of worker and queen bees as a result of queen bee feeding with royal jelly. The work is quite profound as it is a step towards understanding how our environment can change our DNA. There is a growing body of evidence that some epigentic traits may be passed on to following generations, and this could drastically change our understanding of the process of evolution. The work also has implcations for the nature vs. nurture debate, if indeed our nurture actually changes our DNA - that is, our nature. I had a fascinating chat to Ryszard about this study, the future of this work and his opinions on how this may change our understanding of evolution. Please excuse the noise in the recording of the phone call.