Abstract
Social insects are emerging models for epigenetics. Here we examine a link between monoallelic methylation and monoallelic expression in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris using whole methy-lome and transcriptome analysis. In mammals and flowering plants, genomic imprinting (parent of origin allele specific expression) often involves monoallelic expression and methylation. We found nineteen genes displaying monoallelic methylation and expression. They were enriched for functions to do with social organisation in the social insects. Evolutionary theory predicts that social organisation in the hymenoptera invovles genomic imprinting.
Footnotes
↵† Joint first authors
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