Epigenetics, Royal Jelly and the Queen Bee

Special nutrition is needed for a bee to become a Queen bee. A. Worker bees with one queen bee (red color) at  the  center. B. Feeding Royal Jelly to a larva programs that larva to  become a Queen bee by stimulating her to produce higher levels of juvenile hormone (JH) than worker bees who do not  receive the royal jelly. When juvenile hormone concentrations rise above a threshold level (dotted lines), the bee grows and develops to be a Queen. This is another example of phenotype changes that depend on environment (royal Jelly in this case) and not  genetics.

ROYAL JELLY,  METHYLOMICS AND THE MAKING OF  THE QUEEN HONEYBEE.

For more information on nutritional epigenetic programming see  chapter  19 in Life Before Birth.

Gene function can be  decreased  by adding a methyl group, one carbon atom and three hydrogen  atoms,  to the  backbone string of bases that makes up the genes’  DNA. The methyl  group is added to a cytosine  base  where there is a cytosine  next to a guanine base on  the DNA string of bases . As a result, these  locations are called GpG islands - See illustration of CPG island in the Picture Gallery.

 A honeybee larva fed royal jelly at a critical period of early development becomes a queen bee, capable of reproduction. Without  the royal jelly  diet the larva  becomes a  worker bee who cannot reproduce. 

EPIGENETIC  PROGRAMMING OF HONEYBEE LARVAE IS AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMMING

Ryszard Maleszka  in Canberra, Australia conducted a methylomics study showing dramatic differences in gene methylation of important genes in several tissues,  including  the brain, in Queen and worker bees.