I am very happy to announce the recent publication of a collaborative review on the relationship between brain gene expression and behaviour with Dr. Gene Robinson at the University of Illinois.  We reviewed a large number of studies examining changes in brain gene expression in the honey bee across a wide spectrum of behaviours,  environments, and honey bee subspecies.

We showed that brain gene expression is intimately linked to behaviour and that changes in brain gene expression bring about changes in behaviour.  We discuss how changes in the environment as well as changes in physiology affect bee behaviour by first affecting brain gene expression.  Finally, we showed that the association between specific genes and behaviour can be highly conserved over evolutionary time, leading to common basis of behaviour across distantly related animals.

The review appeared last week in Annual Review of Genetics

Zayed A, Robinson GE (2012) Understanding the relationship between brain gene expression and social behavior: Lessons from the honey bee. Annual Review of Genetics 46, 591-615.