Epigenetic (re)programming of caste-specific behavior in the ant
            <i>Camponotus floridanus</i>

Simola, Daniel F.; Graham, Riley; Brady, Cristina M.; Enzmann, Brittany L.; Desplan, Claude; Ray, Anandasankar; Zwiebel, Laurence J.; Bonasio, Roberto; Reinberg, Danny; Liebig, Jürgen; Berger, Shelley L.

doi:10.1126/science.aac6633

Cited by 210 publications

(225 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Social insects may also provide unique insights into the regulation of longevity; the social castes of ants and bees have distinct behaviors, reproductive capacity, and life-spans that could serve as a model for the role of chromatin in aging. Comparisons between individuals from different castes have revealed that they have caste-specific DNA methylation and H3K27ac patterns that are functionally important for their behavior (Simola et al, 2016; Yan et al, 2015). It is unknown if caste-specific chromatin states affect lifespan, but this will be an exciting question to address in the future.…”

Section: Epigenomic Regulation Is Connected To Other Aging Hallmarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aging Epigenome

2016

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During aging, the mechanisms that normally maintain health and stress resistance strikingly decline, resulting in decrepitude, frailty, and ultimately death. Exactly when and how this decline occurs is unknown. Changes in transcriptional networks and chromatin state lie at the heart of age-dependent decline. These epigenomic changes are not only observed during aging but also profoundly affect cellular function and stress resistance, thereby contributing to the progression of aging. We propose that the dysregulation of transcriptional and chromatin networks is a crucial component of aging. Understanding age-dependent epigenomic changes will yield key insights into how aging begins and progresses and should lead to the development of new therapeutics that delay or even reverse aging and age-related diseases.

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Section: Epigenomic Regulation Is Connected To Other Aging Hallmarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aging Epigenome

2016

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“…Honey bee workers transition through cell cleaning, nursing, food processing and comb building, and foraging, distinct behavioral roles performed by discrete “temporal castes” (Seeley 1982; Johnson 2007), resulting in marked spatial separation of work (Baracchi and Chi 2014). Age-based division of labor is in part regulated by variation in response thresholds (Beshers and Fewell 2001; Rueppell et al 2006; Tsuruda et al 2008; Tsuruda and Page 2009), which are influenced by hormones (Marco Antonio et al 2008; Dolezal et al 2012), experience (Ravary et al 2007), social interactions (Ito and Higashi 1991; Powell and Tschinkel 1999; Greene and Gordon 2007; Gordon 2010; Pinter-Wollman et al 2013), genotype (Tsuruda and Page 2009; Constant et al 2012), and epigenetic factors (Simola et al 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age, worksite location, neuromodulators, and task performance in the ant Pheidole dentata

Giraldo

Rusakov

Diloreto

et al. 2016

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Social insect workers modify task performance according to age-related schedules of behavioral development, and/or changing colony labor requirements based on flexible responses that may be independent of age. Using known-age minor workers of the ant Pheidole dentata throughout 68% of their 140-day laboratory lifespan, we asked whether workers found inside or outside the nest differed in task performance and if behaviors were correlated with and/or causally linked to changes in brain serotonin (5HT) and dopamine (DA). Our results suggest that task performance patterns of individually assayed minors collected at these two spatially different worksites were independent of age. Outside-nest minors displayed significantly higher levels of predatory behavior and greater activity than inside-nest minors, but these groups did not differ in brood care or phototaxis. We examined the relationship of 5HT and DA to these behaviors in known-age minors by quantifying individual brain titers. Both monoamines did not increase significantly from 20 to 95 days of age. DA did not appear to directly regulate worksite location, although titers were significantly higher in outside-nest than inside-nest workers. Pharmacological depletion of 5HT did not affect nursing, predation, phototaxis or activity. Our results suggest that worker task capabilities are independent of age beyond 20 days, and only predatory behavior can be consistently predicted by spatial location. This could reflect worker flexibility or variability in the behavior of individuals collected at each location, which could be influenced by complex interactions between age, worksite location, social interactions, neuromodulators, and other environmental and internal regulators of behavior.

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“…In addition, in the ant Camponotus floridanus, a differential recruitment of CBP to enhancer sequences in different castes (female minors, female majors, and males) has been reported (Simola et al 2013b). Furthermore, histone acetylation has been shown to be involved in regulating task-specific behavior in these ants (Simola et al 2016). These results suggest a prominent role for CBP-and, accordingly, CREB-dependent gene activation in processes related to task-specific behavior of these castes.…”

Section: A Role Of Pamcreb-associated Stimulus Responsiveness In Foramentioning

confidence: 88%

Involvement of phosphorylated Apis mellifera CREB in gating a honeybee's behavioral response to an external stimulus

et al. 2016

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The transcription factor cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) is involved in neuronal plasticity. Phosphorylation activates CREB and an increased level of phosphorylated CREB is regarded as an indicator of CREB-dependent transcriptional activation. In honeybees (Apis mellifera) we recently demonstrated a particular high abundance of the phosphorylated honeybee CREB homolog (pAmCREB) in the central brain and in a subpopulation of mushroom body neurons. We hypothesize that these high pAmCREB levels are related to learning and memory formation. Here, we tested this hypothesis by analyzing brain pAmCREB levels in classically conditioned bees and bees experiencing unpaired presentations of conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US). We demonstrate that both behavioral protocols display differences in memory formation but do not alter the level of pAmCREB in bee brains directly after training. Nevertheless, we report that bees responding to the CS during unpaired stimulus presentations exhibit higher levels of pAmCREB than nonresponding bees. In addition, Trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor that is thought to enhance histone acetylation by CREB-binding protein, increases the bees' CS responsiveness. We conclude that pAmCREB is involved in gating a bee's behavioral response driven by an external stimulus.

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Epigenetic (re)programming of caste-specific behavior in the ant Camponotus floridanus

Cited by 210 publications

References 53 publications

The Aging Epigenome

The Aging Epigenome

Age, worksite location, neuromodulators, and task performance in the ant Pheidole dentata

Involvement of phosphorylated Apis mellifera CREB in gating a honeybee's behavioral response to an external stimulus

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