Can behavior be controlled by genes? The case of honeybee work assignments

From: The WUSTL Newsroom

Research shows several micro-RNAs — noncoding RNAs that control gene expression — are down-regulated in nurse bees. What worker bees do depends on how old they are. A worker a few days old will become a nurse bee that devotes herself to feeding larvae (brood), secreting beeswax to seal the cells that contain brood and attending to the queen.