11 December 2012 Honey bees’ genetic code unlocked By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News
Excerpt: “The development of different bees from the same DNA in the larvae is one of the clearest examples of epigenetics in action – mechanisms that go beyond the basic DNA sequence,” said co-author Mark Dickman from the University of Sheffield.
My comment: In my model, the honeybee model organism links the epigenetic effects of nutrient chemical-dependent pheromone-controlled adaptive evolution to genes, behavior, and back in species from microbes to man. Reports like this one of epigenetic effects on proteins called histones within the nuclei of cells add even more intermolecular detail to control of adaptive evolution via ecological, social, neurogenic, and socio-cognitive niche construction exemplified in the honeybee model.
Extensive histone post-translational modification in honey bees (Subscription required) “…royal jelly has the potential to directly affect levels of histone lysine acetylation and subsequently regulate gene expression.”
Human Pheromones: Epigenetic Effects of Odors and Their Affects on Behavior (open access) “Across species comparisons of epigenetic effects on genetically predisposed nutrient-dependent and hormone-driven invertebrate and vertebrate social and sexual behavior indicate that human pheromones also alter the development of the brain and behavior via the same molecular mechanisms. ”
James V. Kohl detailedl how quantized energy-dependent microRNA biogenesis links the pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction to biophysically constrained viral latency and healthy longevity. Links from what organisms eat to the enzyme-dependent metabolism of food also link metabolic networks to microRNA-mediated genetic networks in the context of RNA interference. Drug therapies alter RNA interference by altering cell type differentiation in all cells of all individuals of all species. For comparison, during the past 26 years, Kohl has detailed how the chemistry of protein folding is biophysically constrained at every level of biological organization by conserved molecular mechanisms.