A search for parent-of-origin effects on gene expression in honey bees. Apis mellifera

Genes whose expression depends on whether an allele came from the mother or father are little known outside of mammals and plants. Theory predicts extensive parent-specific gene expression in social insects because parents can gain inclusive fitness benefits by silencing alleles in female offspring. We searched for evidence of this in honey bees using transcriptomes from reciprocal crosses between European and Africanized strains. Several transcripts had significant parent-of-origin effects, but most were more strongly biased towards maternal alleles in one cross, suggesting hybrid incompatibility. Future work will determine if there are indeed parent-of-origin effects on gene expression in honey bees.