Post-transcriptional regulation of behavior plasticity in social insects☆

Social insects often show remarkable behavioral plasticity, which is closely associated with their respective castes. The underpinnings of this plasticity are complex, involving genetic differences among individuals within a colony and regulation of gene expression at multiple levels. Post-transcriptional regulation, which increases the complexity of the transcriptome, plays a crucial role in the multilayer regulatory network that influences social insect behavior. We provide an overview of the impact of three post-transcriptional regulatory processes on the reproductive division of labor and worker division of labor in social insects: alternative splicing, RNA modifications, and noncoding RNAs. We also discuss the relationship between post-transcriptional regulation and chromatin modification.