Context affects nestmate recognition errors in honey bees and stingless bees.

Nestmate recognition studies, where a discriminator first recognises and then behaviourally discriminates (accepts/rejects) another individual, have used a variety of methodologies and contexts. This is potentially problematic because recognition errors in discrimination behaviour are predicted to be context-dependent. Here we compare the recognition decisions (accept/reject) of discriminators in two eusocial bees, Apis mellifera and Tetragonisca angustula, under different contexts.

Genetic activity at the albino locus in Cattanach's insertion in the mouse.

Cattanach's insertion (Is(In7;X)1Ct or XCt) includes the normal allele at the albino locus (c+), which is subject to inactivation of the X chromosome carrying it, so that XCtX; cc mice have albino and pigmented patches. The X-autosome translocation T(X;16)16H or XT16H leads to preferential inactivation of the other X chromosome in female cells, so that XCtXT16H; cc mice are almost entirely white. However, they grow darker with age, as if reversal of inactivation of the c+ allele were taking place in increasing numbers of melanocytes.

The effects of the pink-eyed unstable gene on the retinal pigment epithelium of the mouse.

Pink-eyed unstable (pun), an autosomal gene in the mouse, causes variegation of the coat. In some melanocytes it functions as the normal allele p+, producing dark pigment, and in others as the mutant p, producing light pigment. As a study of another unstable gene at a different locus had shown that the instability was strongly influenced by the tissue environment, it seemed desirable to find out whether this also applied to pun.