back to article Humans and bees share the same sociability genes

The genetic pathway toward social behavior for honey bees and mammals is more similar than previously thought, according to a new study published in PLOS Computational Biology titled "Conservation in Mammals of Genes Associated with Aggression-Related Behavioral Phenotypes in Honey Bees." Social animals have complex lives, …

  1. Jemma

    Not a surprise at all, we already know that growth control genes are retained in mammals (and birds/dinosaurs) from very early multicellular life. Why in that case would you reinvent the wheel in the case of communication genes? This isn't a surprising result it's almost blatantly obvious.

    What would be worth finding out is any correlations between comms. genes and conditions like autism etc, whether there is a possibility that ancient genes are being reactivated when they shouldn't be and causing the problem (to make an analogy, like trying to run a windows 10 device on a windows 3.1 driver, things are not going to end well).

    Humanity seems to love to over complicate matters, assuming that between two very different groups of animals chemistry must be very different, while blethering on about the kiss principle everywhere else. It makes no sense to keep reinventing the wheel when you've got something that works..

    I just gotta go feed my Velocichicken...

    1. Valeyard

      >the KISS principle

      >the duck-billed platypus

      everyone has had that ONE project..

      1. Jemma

        Nobody's perfect....

        Oh wait...

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "This isn't a surprising result it's almost blatantly obvious."

      No, it might be a blatantly obvious hypothesis to you (when did you publish) but even so, a hypothesis needs to be tested. It's the confirmation that makes it interesting.

      1. Jemma

        As I said, if the retention of growth control genes between archeoforms and more modern organisms has been proven, which it has, then it is an eminently reasonable hypothesis to state that it is likely other gene systems would have evolved once and been retained since.

        Since I am entirely unsurprised by this information, I consider it unsurprising.

        Neither would I be entirely surprised to find out that autism is linked in some way to archeoform communication genes being active in autism spectrum disorder, whereas they are not in non ASD individuals.

        In point of fact a possible hypothesis for that might be an alarm gene in bees, that does what it is supposed to do (acting as a sting something on:off switch) activating in humans, and royally banjaxing their ability to relate to emotions (deleting the ability to see and react to gradations of emotion and the ability to grade their emotions 'normally' in turn). People with serious autism will to react to things in an on:off way - reacting to certain situations in a very extreme way, yet to others there is no reaction at all. It's already known for example that if a pregnant woman is exposed to extreme stress in the 3rd trimester - there is a fundamental change in how the child will process & be affected by cortisol to their detriment (as opposed to children who didn't have the twin towers dropping on their mothers at precisely the wrong time) in comparison to children of unstressed mothers, there is also a corrolation between parental starvation and the immune system in the children (it's substantially weaker).

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          "As I said, if the retention of growth control genes between archeoforms and more modern organisms has been proven, which it has, then it is an eminently reasonable hypothesis to state that it is likely other gene systems would have evolved once and been retained since."

          This assumes that such systems evolved before the lines separated. That's not a given. Results like this serve to tell us how ancient such systems are. That's new information.

  2. Doogs
    Coat

    I like it

    Hui Liu is in the news.

    (Sorry)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This explains Project Fear.

    And the aggressive panic spreading through the hipster population.

    Pheromones

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: This explains Project Fear.

      "And the aggressive panic spreading through the hipster population."

      "Pheromones"

      You may be on to something there.

      I've noticed an unusual odor that becomes manifest over the stressful Holiday season every Winter wherever hipsters congregate, Eg: coffee shops. It smells like pumpkin spice.

  4. Known Hero
    Trollface

    So wrong yet then again ....

    Can we infuse this with hipster beard oil.

    We can market it, give your beard the power of the bee infused with natural pheromone's. All bee's are lovingly stroked after harvesting.

    *Edit, Hipster angle was just covered by AC Dammit !

  5. redpawn

    Is this the fear gene or the suicide gene? After the bee stings you she is a goner.

    1. Nolveys
  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    "a banana-smelling pheromone"

    Does that mean that bees are more aggressive around bananas ?

  7. Baldy50

    If you like bees!

    Watch some 628dirtrooster, he's a laugh.

  8. Alister

    I can't say I've ever felt the urge to unleash my sting whilst feeling threatened or angered, perhaps eating bananas has desensitized me to the effect of the pheromones?

  9. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Could we please:

    either stop calling Orcinus orca 'killer whales'

    or start calling Homo sapiens sapiens 'killer apes'?

    I'm cool with both.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      ...stop calling Orcinus orca 'killer whales'

      Why? Pretty apt description which defines their behaviour perfectly - they are ferocious hunters which revel in killing - watch a group hunting seals on You Tube - they are one few species which hunt for fun not just food. The Latin name means 'killer from the realms of the dead' which is probably worse. I don't agree with keeping them in swimming pools to perform tricks, but denying their nature is equally dumb.

      ...Homo sapiens sapiens 'killer apes'

      All apes are killers - but homo sapiens are not apes - apes and humans are all hominoids which is where the common confusion of terms usually arises.

      1. Chris G

        Killer Dolphins

        Your average Mediterranean dolphin is prone to playing with it's food too.

        I have seen when sailing on a few occasions, a pod of dolphins surround a school of young tuna, then,when some of the dolphins catch one they jump out of the water and throw the catch around and then pounce on it,kind of reminds me of a cat playing with a mouse.

        Although very people friendly, like Killer Whales, Dolphins are very successful predators.

      2. Suricou Raven

        The killer whale is not actually a whale. It's a very large dolphin.

        Humans, on the other hand, are very much apes. All go under Hominoidea. There are numerous anatomical features that are unique to great apes, and humans have them.

        1. cortland

          Pratchett called us Pan Narrans; stoyy-telling chimpanzee.

  10. Novex

    I must be missing some of those social genes then, as I don't get along well with anyone...

    1. You aint sin me, roit

      I don't like bananas - so I'm a pacifist?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yep, I ain't no bee either ;)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Did I Get This Right?

    Bees will eventually abandon common sense for believing in and being glued to whatever is trending on Twitter, Facebook and whatever other garbage hipsters use nowadays to call themselves social?

  12. cortland

    The buzz is ...

    There's a state prison in California where beekeeping was a permitted activity for good-conduct prisoners, but this had to be prohibited after some of them were discovered breaking out in hives. ...

  13. M7S
    Happy

    At least mother nature not only reads the standards documentation

    but follows it as well.*

    No, that's not an affirmation of Intelligent Design as espoused by certain parties.

    *Any suggestion that IT companies/vendors not following sensible standards (particularly with regard to the relevant topic of signalling) are therefore in some way violating nature's laws might be worthy of a discussion amongst commentards.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It occurs to me

    That the H.sapiens version of Hymenoptera's sting is the handgun.

    Explains a lot, as well as "my gun's bigger than yours, gotta get 'em all" mentality.

    Writing a paper on this as we speak.

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