DNA methylation in a harvester ant: genomic imprinting and division of labor

Genomic imprinting, the inheritance of epigenetic modifications of DNA (such as methylation), is important in disease and theorized to play a role in kin selection. While DNA methylation has been described in the social insects, studies to date have only shown plasticity in methylation, but not heritable effects. Using a harvester ant with genetic caste determination, where workers are produced via hybridization between two reproductively isolated lineages (J1 and J2), we present data on differential DNA methylation among developmental stages of the queen and worker castes as well as apparently heritable variation in methylation.