Understanding the genetic basis of social behaviour from honey bee and other insect models

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My research program in sociobiology couples genomics and kin theory to detail the genetic basis of social behavior. My research rationale is straightforward: for 50 years kin theory has provided a gene-based explanation for sociality, but for the most part we have yet to identify those genes. Over the past five years, I have capitalized on genomic techniques to identify genes that underscore one quintessentially social trait: reproductive altruism in worker honeybees. I have established that genes encoding egg yolk, royal jelly and dozens of other proteins can mediate differences between reproductively selfish (queen) and altruistic (worker) castes, providing a clear bridge between theory and discovery. Moreover, I have begun to assemble these genes into interaction networks that provide a first description of how sterility is coordinated at the molecular level. My previous Discovery grant has therefore successfully enabled my students and I to push our understanding of sociobiology from gene theory to gene reality. In the next five years I propose to further transform the field in three distinct ways.