DNA methylation marks are transmitted between generations of honey bees, a study finds. Epigenetic inheritance involves the intergenerational transfer of molecular marks, which can affect gene activity through chemical modifications to DNA rather than through alterations of the DNA sequence. Inheritance of epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation is rare in mammals, but relatively little is known about the evolutionary significance of epigenetic inheritance or its prevalence in nonmammalian organisms. Boris Yagound and colleagues investigated epigenetic inheritance in honey bees, focusing on the transfer of DNA methylation marks from fathers to daughters. The authors artificially inseminated three queens with semen from four males and examined DNA methylation patterns through whole-genome bisulfite sequencing on semen from the fathers and thorax tissue from fathers, daughters, and unrelated bees. DNA methylation patterns were more similar between fathers and daughters than between unrelated males and females from different generations, even after controlling for environmental factors. Tissue samples from father-daughter pairs had twice as many shared methylated DNA sites and four times fewer differentially methylated DNA sites, compared with unrelated pairs of bees. According to the authors, epigenetic inheritance might play an important evolutionary role in transferring information between generations of invertebrates.
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Article #20-17094:
"Intergenerational transfer of DNA methylation marks in the honey bee," by Boris Yagound, Emily J. Remnant, Gabriele Buchmann and Benjamin P. Oldroyd.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Boris Yagound,
University of Sydney, AUSTRALIA;
e-mail: <boris.yagound@sydney.edu.au>