Resolving the role of DNA methylation in insect social evolution

This Project will investigate the evolutionary relationship between DNA methylation and the type of advanced sociality displayed by bees, ants and wasps. The Project will map DNA methylation across the social insects and test whether it has coevolved with sociality. It will also determine how a vital social cue, the queen pheromone, influences the worker methylome. Finally, the Project will apply quantitative genetic and methylomic methods to wild insects, revealing patterns of selection and inheritance in epigenetic and phenotypic traits. By using a highly novel combination of genomic and evolutionary methods, the Project will advance the ongoing debate about the importance of methylation to sociality and extreme phenotypic plasticity.