title: Epigenetic (re)programming of caste-specific behavior in the ant Camponotus floridanus.
abstract: Eusocial insects organize themselves into behavioral castes whose regulation has been proposed to involve epigenetic processes, including histone modification. In the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus, morphologically distinct worker castes called minors and majors exhibit pronounced differences in foraging and scouting behaviors. We found that these behaviors are regulated by histone acetylation likely catalyzed by the conserved acetyltransferase CBP. Transcriptome and chromatin analysis in brains of scouting minors fed pharmacological inhibitors of CBP and histone deacetylases (HDACs) revealed hundreds of genes linked to hyperacetylated regions targeted by CBP. Majors rarely forage, but injection of a HDAC inhibitor or small interfering RNAs against the HDAC Rpd3 into young major brains induced and sustained foraging in a CBP-dependent manner. Our results suggest that behavioral plasticity in animals may be regulated in an epigenetic manner via histone modification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Program in Epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Simola
authors.affiliation: Program in Epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Riley J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Program in Epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Cristina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Brady
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Brittany L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Enzmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Desplan
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Anandasankar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
authors.forename: Laurence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Zwiebel
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Program in Epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bonasio
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Biochemistry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reinberg
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liebig
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Program in Epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.|Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Shelley L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Berger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000107:Acetylation; D001000:Ants / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D056464:Histone Deacetylase 2 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D012919:Social Behavior; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D056464:Histone Deacetylase 2; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors