ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
The role of epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation, in the evolution of caste in insect societies.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genome Evolution in Social Insects.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Polyphenism Through RNA Chemical Modifications.Molecular ecology · 2026Review
- Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing Regulate Phenotypic Plasticity of a Social Wasp.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genome-wide and gene-specific DNA methylation across developmental stages in Pogonomyrmex californicus: A socially polymorphic ant.Insect molecular biology · 2026Article
- Evolutionary Transitions in Social Behavior are Associated With Convergent and Partially Reversible Expansions of Transcription Factor Binding Sites.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- EpiBrain: the brain's epigenetic landscape in a snapshot.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly and Resequencing Data Reveal Low DNA Methylation and Reduced Diversity in the Solitary Bee Pollinator Osmia cornuta.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Multiomics Reveal Associations Between CpG Methylation, Histone Modifications and Transcription in a Species That has Lost DNMT3, the Colorado Potato Beetle.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2025Article
- Epigenetic Mechanisms inCurrent issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Transgenerational epigenetic effect of kings' aging on offspring's caste fate mediated by sperm DNA methylation in termites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of a color polyphenism by genetic accommodation in the tobacco hornworm,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Lack of paternal silencing and ecotype-specific expression in head and body lice hybrids.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Pervasive relaxed selection in termite genomes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Exploring the ageing methylome in the model insect, Nasonia vitripennis.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Potential Role of DNA Methylation as a Driver of Plastic Responses to the Environment Across Cells, Organisms, and Populations.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Neuromodulators and neuroepigenetics of social behavior in ants.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2023Review
- Epigenetics Mechanisms of Honeybees: Secrets of Royal Jelly.Epigenetics insights · 2023Review
- Nuclear genetic diversity of head lice sheds light on human dispersal around the world.PloS one · 2023Article
- Biobanks, offspring fitness and the influence of developmental plasticity in conservation biology.Animal reproduction · 2023Review
- ChIP-seq profiling of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 in an invasive insect,Frontiers in genetics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Eusocial insects can be defined as those that live in colonies and have distinct queens and workers. For most species, queens and workers arise from a common genome, and so caste-specific developmental trajectories must arise from epigenetic processes. In this review, we examine the epigenetic mechanisms that may be involved in the regulation of caste dimorphism. Early work on honeybees suggested that DNA methylation plays a causal role in the divergent development of queen and worker castes. This view has now been challenged by studies that did not find consistent associations between methylation and caste in honeybees and other species. Evidence for the involvement of methylation in modulating behaviour of adult workers is also inconsistent. Thus, the functional significance of DNA methylation in social insects remains equivocal. This article is part of the theme issue 'How does epigenetics influence the course of evolution?'
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.