title: A Search for Parent-of-Origin Effects on Honey Bee Gene Expression.
abstract: Parent-specific gene expression (PSGE) is little known outside of mammals and plants. PSGE occurs when the expression level of a gene depends on whether an allele was inherited from the mother or the father. Kin selection theory predicts that there should be extensive PSGE in social insects because social insect parents can gain inclusive fitness benefits by silencing parental alleles in female offspring. We searched for evidence of PSGE in honey bees using transcriptomes from reciprocal crosses between European and Africanized strains. We found 46 transcripts with significant parent-of-origin effects on gene expression, many of which overexpressed the maternal allele. Interestingly, we also found a large proportion of genes showing a bias toward maternal alleles in only one of the reciprocal crosses. These results indicate that PSGE may occur in social insects. The nonreciprocal effects could be largely driven by hybrid incompatibility between these strains. Future work will help to determine if these are indeed parent-of-origin effects that can modulate inclusive fitness benefits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 skocher@gmail.com ghunt@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Kocher
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Public Service & Agriculture, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tsuruda
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: Joshua D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Emore
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias, Apiculture, 76280 Ajuchitlan, Queretaro, Mexico.
authors.forename: Miguel E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Arechavaleta-Velasco
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Queller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
authors.forename: Joan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Strassmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Grozinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gribskov
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: San Miguel
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Westerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 skocher@gmail.com ghunt@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hunt
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D005838:Genotype; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
keywords: gene expression; genomics; honey bees; imprinting; kinship theory; social insects