PLoS Genet. 6, e1000896 (2010)

Foraging behaviour in the honeybee Apis mellifera can be altered by tweaking the expression of a gene in abdominal fat cells.

Gro Amdam and her colleagues at Arizona State University in Tempe watched bee strains that had been selected for their foraging preference — for either pollen or nectar. After lowering the expression of a gene related to insulin signalling in the insects' fat cells, bees of both strains cut down on their collection of sugary nectar in favour of protein-containing pollen. However, the treatment had no effect on the bees' sensory response to sugar.

The results suggest that systems other than the nervous system can affect behaviour, although the subtleties in the shift indicate that multiple genes are involved.