The basis of bee‐ing different: the role of gene silencing in plasticity

Developmental plasticity can generate, from one genotype, diverse alternative phenotypes appropriate to local environ-mental conditions (West-Eberhard 2003). However, our un-derstanding of the developmental-genetic mechanisms that underlie plastic responses remains incomplete. Recent re-search suggests that DNA methylation, a system of gene si-lencing heritable across cell divisions, may serve as a mechanism underlying the evolution of plasticity. In partic-ular, several recent studies in Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies) highlight the potential importance of methyla-tion for understanding plasticity (Wang et al. 2006; Kronforst et al. 2008; Kucharski et al. 2008).