Ant Genomics & the Social Insect Behavior Ontology RCN Lightning Talk 2/25/2011 Christopher D. Smith Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biology Associate Director,

Ant Genomics & the Social Insect Behavior OntologyRCN 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

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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

JH = Juvenile Hormone

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Wheeler et. al. Expression profiles during honeybee caste determinationGenomeBiology2000, 2(1):research0001.1-0001.6

• Fertile• Stay in nest• Long-lived• Larger

• Sterile• Leave Nest• Short-lived• Aggressive• Smaller, no wings

‘Covergent’ Behaviors in Ants & Bees

• Extensive literature of natural history & behavior

• Well-developed behavior assays

• MANY genomes, methylomes, developmental timecourses online

Behaviors can be linked to SNPs

• Africanized bees– Pursue Enemy 10-30x further– More reactive to color, movement– 4-10x stinging– Disengage less– Alert quickly– Larger defense perimeter

• 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

Disengagement

Perception

Orientation

1o Discriminationor Identification

AlertRecruitment

Approach

2o Discriminationor IdentificationThreat

ATTACK!

Adapted from Breed & Hunt2004. Annu. Rev. Entolom. 49:271-98

The Social Insect Behavior Ontology(SIBO)

© SmithLab 2007

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Goal is to use natural language to find chemicals & anatomy associated with behaviors across eusocial insects to gain insight on evolution of eusocial organization

• Anatomy Based on Bolton

• Chemicals linked to CheBI

2nd Goal: Dissect Genetic & Epigenetic Mechanisms Underlying Behavior Across Taxa

•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

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http://www.cc.gatech.edu/cpl/projects/gtabas/ NIH: SC2 GM084888