Parental imprinting and epigenetic inheritance in honey bees

本项目旨在揭示蜜蜂表观遗传背后的机制，深入了解蜜蜂生物学，并为研究表观遗传学建立一个优秀的新系统。有令人信服的理论和经验的理由来预测蜜蜂的表观遗传。此外，互惠杂交揭示了强烈的父系效应，表明雄性会修改自己的精子，以提高雌性后代的繁殖成功率。通过甲基化修饰DNA和转移卵子或精液中的小RNA分子是蜂后和雄蜂操纵后代基因表达的两种候选机制。

This project aims to uncover the mechanisms behind epigenetic inheritance in bees, providing deep insights into their biology, and develop an outstanding new system for studying epigenetics. There are compelling theoretical and empirical reasons to predict epigenetic inheritance in honey bees. Further, reciprocal crosses reveal strong paternal effects suggesting that males modify their sperm to increase the reproductive success of their female offspring. Modification of DNA by methylation and the transfer of small RNA molecules in eggs or semen are two candidate mechanisms by which queens and drones may manipulate gene expression in their offspring.