Phenotypic plasticity shapes genome architecture in the honeybee Apis mellifera (ChIP-seq)

Female honeybees are specified as workers or queens based on diet during early development. Workers are essentially sterile with a reduced number of ovarioles and no spermatheca. In the presence of the queen (queen mandibular pheromone) and her brood, worker ovaries are kept in an inactive quiescent state. If the queen is removed, or lost, worker bees are able to sense this change in their environment and their ovaries undergo complete remodelling producing unfertilised haploid eggs that will produce male (drone bees). In this study we analyse gene expression in queen, worker, and laying worker ovaries using RNA-seq and explore differences in the chromatin landscape (focussing on H3K27me3). Genome-wide distribution of H3K27me3 was determined by Chromatin immunopreciptation in ovary tissue of queens, sterile workers and workers laying eggs.