One moment in time : Gene expression analysis of honey bees; nurse bees v.s. foragers

Abstract

Honey bees live in complex societies based on a division of labour. The honey bee workers specialise in different tasks throughout their lives, starting off as nurse bees and ending as foragers. The nurse bees and foragers display interesting phenotypic differences that do not have its origins in differences at genotype level, but in differences in gene expression. This thesis presents the results from an expression analysis done on honey bee workers comparing the expression profiles of nurse bees and foraging bees. We confirm patterns previously described in differences in expression of genes involved in energy storage, nutrient and energy metabolism, immune defence and communication. There are also a few surprises such as the expression of two hexamerins previously not reported in adult bees.