For social animals, the genotypes of group members affect the social environment, and thus individual behavior, often indirectly. We used genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to determine the influence of individual vs. group genotypes on aggression in honey bees. Aggression in honey bees arises from the coordinated actions of colony members, primarily nonreproductive “soldier” bees, and thus, experiences evolutionary selection at the colony level. Here, we show that individual behavior is influenced by colony environment, which in turn, is shaped by allele frequency within colonies. Using a population with a range of aggression, we sequenced individual whole genomes and looked for genotype–behavior associations within colonies in a common environment. There were no significant correlations between individual aggression and specific alleles. By contrast, we found strong correlations between colony aggression and the frequencies of specific alleles within colonies, despite a small number of colonies. Associations at the colony level were highly significant and were very similar among both soldiers and foragers, but they covaried with one another. One strongly significant association peak, containing an ortholog of the Drosophila sensory gene dpr4 on linkage group (chromosome) 7, showed strong signals of both selection and admixture during the evolution of gentleness in a honey bee population. We thus found links between colony genetics and group behavior and also, molecular evidence for group-level selection, acting at the colony level. We conclude that group genetics dominates individual genetics in determining the fatal decision of honey bees to sting.

对于社交动物，群体成员的基因型通常会间接影响社交环境，进而影响个人行为。我们使用全基因组关联研究（GWAS）来确定个体基因组与群体基因型对蜜蜂侵略的影响。蜜蜂的侵略源于殖民地成员（主要是非生殖“士兵”蜜蜂）的协调行动，因此在殖民地一级经历了进化选择。在这里，我们表明个体行为受菌落环境的影响，而菌落环境又受菌落内等位基因频率的影响。利用具有一定侵略性的种群，我们对单个完整基因组进行了测序，并在共同环境中寻找菌落内的基因型-行为关联。个体攻击与特定等位基因之间没有显着相关性。相比之下，尽管菌落数量很少，但我们发现菌落侵袭与菌落内特定等位基因的频率之间存在很强的相关性。殖民地一级的关联非常重要，士兵和觅食者之间的关联非常相似，但它们之间却相互协变。一个非常显着的缔合峰，其中包含连接群（染色体）7上的果蝇感觉基因dpr4在蜜蜂种群的温和进化过程中显示出强烈的选择和混合信号。因此，我们发现了菌落遗传学与群体行为之间的联系，以及在菌落水平上进行群体水平选择的分子证据。我们得出结论，在确定蜜蜂st伤的致命决定时，群体遗传学主导着个体遗传学。