How bees have identical genes, different jobs
Genetically identical worker bees take on very different roles in the hive—a division of labor that now appears to be linked to chemical tags on those identical genes.
“It’s like one of those pictures that portray two different images depending on your angle of view,” says Johns Hopkins University researcher Andy Feinberg.
“The bee genome contains images of both nurses and foragers. The tags on the DNA give the brain its coordinates so that it knows what kind of behavior to project.”
Full story at Futurity.
Photo credit: Christofer Bang
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