Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign want to understand more of the genetic basis of social behavior in humans by decoding it on honey bees. "The honey bee (Apis millifera) has been called a model system for social behavior," said Saurabh Sinha, a professor of computer science affiliated to the university's Institute for Genomic Biology. "We want to learn how the honey bee society influences behavior in individual honey bees".

"By studying the social regulation of gene expression, we hope to extrapolate the biology to humans."

When adult workers are young, they function as nurses, caring for eggs and larvae, but with age, they shift to foraging for nectar and pollen. But, whenever there is a shortage of foragers, some of the young nurse bees will change their duty and transform in foragers.

The job shift, whether it occurs normally or prematurely, means changes in the function of thousands of genes involved in brain activity; some genes stop their activity, while others are activated. Genes are activated or disabled by short parts of DNA neighboring the gene. The DNA portions are binding sites for molecules called transcription factors.

When the right transcription factor binds to such a site, it activates the gene. If the transcription factor breaks away, the gene is disabled. The team used the newly sequenced honey bee genome to look for the binding sites of transcription factors already known from studies made on the development of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster).

A computer algorithm checked nearly 3,000 genes. The researchers looked for correlations between particular transcription factors comparing nurse bees and foragers with their array of activated and disabled genes. "We found five different transcription factors that showed a statistically significant correlation with socially regulated genes," Sinha said.

"It appears that genes involved in nervous-system development in fruit flies are re-used by nature for behavioral functions in adult honey bees."

Preserving traits from early development of the individual is suspected also about the evolution of the human being and his cerebral functions. "Honey bees will be useful in elucidating the mechanisms by which social factors regulate gene expression in brains, including those of humans."