Queen and worker honeybee castes are defined by alternative chromatin states during larval development [RNA-Seq]

We use chromatin immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing to produce the first genome-wide maps of chromatin structure in the honeybee at a key larval stage where developmental canalization into queen or worker is irreversible. We find extensive genome-wide differences in H3K4me3, H3K27ac and H3K36me3, many of which correlate with caste-specific transcription. Furthermore, we identify H3K27ac as a key chromatin modification that most robustly defines caste and suggest that these regions may harbour caste-specific cis-acting elements such as enhancers. 96hQ and 96hW larval heads were profiled by RNA-Seq using 4 replicates each