Robinson uses the honey bee, Apis mellifera, to understand the mechanisms governing social behavior. Most research is focused on one aspect of colony organization, the division of labor among workers, and the process of worker behavioral development that underlies it. Among their current interests are: 1) Social and pheromonal regulation of endocrine-mediated maturation and division of labor; 2) Changes in honey bee brain structure associated with behavioral maturation and division of labor (with the laboratory of Dr. Susan Fahrbach); 3) Changes in honey bee brain chemistry associated with behavioral development and division of labor (especially biogenic amines); 4) Learning and memory in relation to division of labor in honey bees; and 5) Sociogenomics: Genes influencing behavioral maturation and division of labor in honey bees. For more information see the Robinson Lab home page.

Representative and Recent Publications

Robinson, G.E. 2002. Genomics and integrative analyses of division of labor in honey bee colonies. American Naturalist 160: S160-S172. Special issue on behavior genetics.

Robinson, G.E. and Y. Ben-Shahar. 2002. Social behavior and comparative genomics: New genes or new gene regulation?  Genes, Brain and Behavior 1: 197-203.

Ben-Shahar, Y., Robichon, A., Sokolowski, M.B., and G.E. Robinson. 2002. Influence of gene action across different time scales on behavior.  Science 296: 741-744. 

Whitfield, C.W., Cziko, A.-M. and G.E. Robinson. 2003. Gene expression patterns in the brain predict behavior in individual honey bees.  Science 302: 296-299.

Grozinger, C.M., Sharabash, N., Whitfield, C.W. and G.E. Robinson. 2003. Pheromone-mediated gene expression in the honey bee brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Suppl. 2: 14519-25.

Robinson, G.E. 2004. Beyond nature and nurture.  Science 304: 397-399. Invited Perspective.

Robinson, G.E., Grozinger, C.M. and C.W. Whitfield. Sociogenomics: Social life in molecular terms. Nature Reviews Genetics. Invited review. In press.

Leoncini, I., Le Conte, Y., Costagliola, G., Plettner, E., Toth, A.L., Wang, M., Huang, Z., Bécard, J.-M., Crauser, D., Slessor, K.N. and G E. Robinson. 2004. Regulation of behavioral maturation by a primer pheromone produced by adult worker honey bees.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences101: 17559-17564. Cover story.

Robinson, G.E. 2004. The behavior of genes.  New York Times Op-Ed, 13 December.

Cash, A.C., Whitfield, C.W., Ismail, N. and G.E. Robinson. Genomic plasticity in behavior, power and replicability in microarray analysis.  Genes, Brain and Behavior. In press.