EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The effect of maternal care on gene expression and DNA methylation in a subsocial bee

Samuel V. Arsenault, Brendan G. Hunt () and Sandra M. Rehan ()
Additional contact information
Samuel V. Arsenault: University of Georgia
Brendan G. Hunt: University of Georgia
Sandra M. Rehan: University of New Hampshire

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Developmental plasticity describes the influence of environmental factors on phenotypic variation. An important mediator of developmental plasticity in many animals is parental care. Here, we examine the consequences of maternal care on offspring after the initial mass provisioning of brood in the small carpenter bee, Ceratina calcarata. Removal of the mother during larval development leads to increased aggression and avoidance in adulthood. This corresponds with changes in expression of over one thousand genes, alternative splicing of hundreds of genes, and significant changes to DNA methylation. We identify genes related to metabolic and neuronal functions that may influence developmental plasticity and aggression. We observe no genome-wide association between differential DNA methylation and differential gene expression or splicing, though indirect relationships may exist between these factors. Our results provide insight into the gene regulatory context of DNA methylation in insects and the molecular avenues through which variation in maternal care influences developmental plasticity.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05903-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05903-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05903-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05903-0