12 December 2012
Dr Mark Dickman's research into honey bees
Research undertaken by Dr Mark Dickman, along with other scientists from the UK and Australia could help show links between nutrition, environment and the insects' development.
This research will offer an insight into the unexplained population decrease in bees globally, or Colony Collapse Disorder which has taken place in recent years.
The research looks at the ways the diet of the bee larvae determines the role of the adult bee. Larvae fed on pollen and nectar will become worker bees and those fed on royal jelly will become queen bees. These developmental changes that occur due to diet are called epigenetic changes, brought about by proteins in the cells called histones.
"The development of different bees from the same DNA in the larvae is one of the clearest examples of epigenetics in action - mechanisms that go beyond the basic DNA sequence," said co-author Mark Dickman from the University of Sheffield.
"From our knowledge of how the histone code works with in other organisms, we think the marks on the histone proteins might act as one of the switches that control how the larvae develop."
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Read the paper in full in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology here: Extensive histone post-translational modification in honey bees |
Read the BBC News Online Article about the Research here: Honey bees' genetic code unlocked |