Transcript RCN Lighting Talk

Ant Genomics & the Social Insect
Behavior Ontology
RCN Lightning Talk 2/25/2011
Christopher D. Smith Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Biology
Associate Director, Center for Computing for Life Sciences
Dept. of Biology
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA 94132
[email protected]
Office HH518: x52505
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Social Insects Are Excellent Models to Study the
Epigenetics of Development & Behavior
JH = Juvenile Hormone
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Abouheif & Wray
Evolution of the Gene Network Underlying Wing Polyphenism in Ants
Science 12 July 2002: Vol. 297. no. 5579, pp. 249 - 252
• Fertile
• Stay in nest
• Long-lived
• Larger
• Sterile
• Leave Nest
• Short-lived
• Aggressive
• Smaller, no wings
Wheeler et. al. Expression profiles during honeybee caste determination
GenomeBiology2000, 2(1):research0001.1-0001.6
‘Covergent’ Behaviors in Ants & Bees
• Extensive
literature of
natural history &
behavior
• Welldeveloped
behavior assays
• MANY
genomes,
methylomes,
developmental
timecourses
online
Behaviors can be linked to SNPs
Perception
•
•
Africanized bees
– Pursue Enemy 10-30x further
– More reactive to color, movement
– 4-10x stinging
– Disengage less
Disengagement
– Alert quickly
– Larger defense perimeter
Orientation
1o Discrimination
or Identification
Recruitment
Approach
Using comparative annotation we can
link ‘Africanized’ SNPs to gene and
regulatory annotations
–
–
e.g. Dopamine receptor mutations
• DRD4
e.g. Serotonin promoter polymorphism
• hSlc6a4,dSerT
Alert
Threat
2o Discrimination
or Identification
ATTACK!
Adapted from Breed & Hunt
2004. Annu. Rev. Entolom. 49:271-98
The Social Insect Behavior Ontology(SIBO)
• Anatomy Based on Bolton
• Chemicals linked to CheBI
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© SmithLab 2007
Goal is to use natural language to find
chemicals & anatomy associated with
behaviors across eusocial insects to gain
insight on evolution of eusocial
organization
2nd Goal: Dissect Genetic & Epigenetic
Mechanisms Underlying Behavior Across Taxa
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http://www.cc.gatech.edu/cpl/projects/gtabas/
NIH: SC2 GM084888
•Most genes associated with human behavioral
disease have poorly defined mechanism
•We want to RNAi/overexpress candidates in ants
and use video tracking to see behavior effects