Highlights•The IIS is the core pathway underlying caste determination.•The pathway can be
regulated by genes, nutrition, and other pathways.•Epigenetics mechanisms have been …

Simple Summary Phenotypic plasticity, the genome producing multiple phenotypes, is
central to an animal's ability to respond to environmental change, expected or otherwise. A …

An area of great interest in evolutionary genomics is whether convergently evolved traits are
the result of convergent molecular mechanisms. The presence of queen and worker castes …

The cellular mechanisms employed by some organisms to produce contrasting
morphological and reproductive phenotypes from the same genome remains one of the key …

The capacity of the honey bee to produce three phenotypically distinct organisms (two
female castes; queens and sterile workers, and haploid male drones) from one genotype …

Highly social insects are characterized by caste dimorphism, with distinct size differences of
reproductive organs between fertile queens and the more or less sterile workers. An …

In the eusocial honey bee Apis mellifera, with reproductive queens and sterile workers, a
female larva's developmental fate depends on its diet; nurse bees feed queen-destined …

Study of social traits in offspring traditionally reflects on interactions in simple family groups,
with famous examples including parent-offspring conflict and sibling rivalry in birds and …

The hallmark of eusociality is the reproductive division of labour, in which one female caste
reproduces, while reproduction is constrained in the subordinate caste. In adult worker …

Plasticity in developmental processes gives rise to remarkable environmentally induced
phenotypes. Some of the most striking and well-studied examples of developmental …