RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The effects of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on gene expression and DNA methylation in the buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 590091 DO 10.1101/590091 A1 P.S.A Bebane A1 B.J. Hunt A1 M. Pegoraro A1 A.R.C Jones A1 H. Marshall A1 E. Rosato A1 E.B. Mallon YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/06/07/590091.abstract AB Neonicotinoids are effective insecticides used on many important arable and horticultural crops. They are nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists which disrupt the function of insect neurons and cause paralysis and death. In addition to direct mortality, there are numerous sublethal effects of low doses of neonicotinoids on bees. We hypothesize that some of these large array of effects could be a consequence of epigenetic changes in bees induced by neonicotinoids. We compared whole methylome (BS-seq) and RNA-seq libraries of the brains of buff tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris workers exposed to field realistic doses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid to libraries from control workers. We found numerous genes which show differential expression between neonicotinoid treated bees and control bees, but no differentially methylated cytosines in any context. We found CpG methylation to be focused mainly in exons and associated with highly expressed genes. We discuss the implications of our results for future legislation.