Colonization history and population differentiation of the Honey Bees ( L.) in Puerto Rico.

Honey bees ( L.) are the primary commercial pollinators across the world. The subspecies originated in Africa and was introduced to the Americas in 1956.

New meta-analysis tools reveal common transcriptional regulatory basis for multiple determinants of behavior.

A fundamental problem in meta-analysis is how to systematically combine information from multiple statistical tests to rigorously evaluate a single overarching hypothesis. This problem occurs in systems biology when attempting to map genomic attributes to complex phenotypes such as behavior. Behavior and other complex phenotypes are influenced by intrinsic and environmental determinants that act on the transcriptome, but little is known about how these determinants interact at the molecular level.

Honey bee aggression supports a link between gene regulation and behavioral evolution.

A prominent theory states that animal phenotypes arise by evolutionary changes in gene regulation, but the extent to which this theory holds true for behavioral evolution is not known. Because "nature and nurture" are now understood to involve hereditary and environmental influences on gene expression, we studied whether environmental influences on a behavioral phenotype, i.e.

Genotype, task specialization, and nest environment influence the stinging response thresholds of individual Africanized and European honeybees to electrical stimulation.

This study was conducted to analyze the stinging response thresholds of individual European and Africanized worker honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) to electrical stimulation. Newly emerged workers were identified, and either were placed into an incubator, into their natal colonies, or cross-fostered in common colonies of European or Africanized ancestry.