CATCH THE BUZZ - Nature vs Nurture

CATCH THE BUZZ

 

Nature or Nurture, Queen and Worker

Alan Harman

   The nature-nurture debate is a giant step closer to being resolved after scientists studying bees documented how environmental inputs can modify genetic hardware.

   The research at the Australian National University (ANU) and the German Cancer Institute uncovered the extensive molecular differences that occur in the brains of two types of genetically identical, but behaviorally different, female honey bees – worker bees and queen bees.

   The workers and queens develop along very different paths when put on different diets.

   The research reveals for the first time the intricacies of the environmentally influenced chemical marking of DNA called DNA methylation, which has the capacity to alter gene expression without affecting the genetic code – a process referred to as ‘epigenetic’, or above the genome.

    “This marking determines which genes are to be fine-tuned in the brains of workers and queens to produce their extraordinarily different behaviors.” research team leader Ryszard Maleszka says at ANU.

    “This finding is not only crucial, but far reaching, because the enzymes that mark DNA in the bee are also the enzymes that mark DNA in human brains, he says.

   “In the bees, more than 550 genes are differentially marked between the brain of the queen and the brain of the worker, which contributes to their profound divergence in behavior.

   “This study provides the first documentation of extensive molecular differences that may allow honey bees to generate different reproductive and behavioral outcomes as a result of differential feeding with royal jelly.”

   Maleszka says the work goes a long way to answering one of life’s biggest questions.

   “This study represents a giant step towards answering one of the big questions in the nature-nurture debate, because it shows how the outside world is linked to DNA via diet, and how environmental inputs can transiently modify our genetic hardware,” he says.

   “Similar studies are impossible to do on human brains, so the humble honey bees are the pioneers in this fascinating area.”

 

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