Table 3.

Biased expression of gene categories significantly regulated by mating in both Drosophila and Apis mellifera

GO Biological Process	Count	%	p-value
response to stress	5	19.23%	0.002
alternative splicing	5	19.23%	0.005
protein binding	16	61.54%	0.007
response to hypoxia	2	7.69%	0.009
calcium ion binding	4	15.38%	0.010
mitotic spindle checkpoint	2	7.69%	0.018
spindle checkpoint	2	7.69%	0.018
anterior/posterior axis specification	3	11.54%	0.018
anterior/posterior pattern formation	3	11.54%	0.022
tissue development	4	15.38%	0.024
mitotic checkpoint	2	7.69%	0.025
calcium binding	2	7.69%	0.028
axis specification	3	11.54%	0.030
cell cycle checkpoint	2	7.69%	0.031
acetylation	2	7.69%	0.032
mesoderm development	3	11.54%	0.040
ventral cord development	2	7.69%	0.044
physiological process	17	65.38%	0.047
splice variant	5	19.23%	0.047
cytoplasm	6	23.08%	0.048

We compared our results to the results of a study published by McGraw et.al. (2004) that identified changes in gene expression in Drosophila females 1–3 hours after mating. Of the genes on our honey bee arrays, 336 were also found on the arrays used by McGraw et.al. (2004) [3]. Only 21 genes from this list were significantly regulated by mating in both bees and Drosophila. Several GO biological processes were overrepresented among the 21 transcripts differentially expressed in both data sets, such as: stress response, alternative splicing, protein binding, and tissue development.