Hi all
Anyone who has kept bees for a long time, and especially if you have done field trials, knows that no matter how hard you try to start all the hives out the same, they end up all different in a pretty short time. Recent work by Seeley and Wray used the term "personality" for the differences in colonies, and while I won't use that term, individuality seems appropriate. 

Each colony is different in its responses, its rate of development, its production, etc. Why should this be so? Certainly when all hives are of the same stock and have the same queen lineage, genetics must play a pretty small part. So, this recent study trying to find out why identical twins can be so different, caught my attention.

What they pointed out was that very small differences in predisposition (or even circumstance) can quickly magnify into very large differences. A radio piece I heard mentioned how a slight tendency in one twin to be an extrovert could cause that person to make extrovert friends and become far more extroverted than her twin sister, who simply didn't have those friends. 

The Neurobiology of Individuality
Mice that explore more have higher levels of neurogenesis, suggesting a link between experience, brain plasticity, and the emergence of distinct personalities.
By Dan Cossins | May 9, 2013

When a group of genetically identical mice lived in the same complex enclosure for 3 months, individuals that explored the environment more broadly grew more new neurons than less adventurous mice, according to a study published (May 9) in Science. This link between exploratory behavior and adult neurogenesis shows that brain plasticity can be shaped by experience and suggests that the process may promote individuality, even among genetically identical organisms.

Scientists have often tried to tackle the question of how individual differences in behavior and personality develop in terms of the interactions between genes and environment. "But there is next to nothing [known] about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individuality," said Gerd Kempermann of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Dresden.

Although the mice in the study were genetically identical, he said, they were not behaviorally identical to begin with: clearly some variation occurs at a very early stage that makes them more or less prone to explore. "It’s incorrect to think of it that the environment caused the difference between the mice," he said. 

"The difference was already there, and the environment amplified that difference. My own personal bias is that there are likely genetic events that happened at germline, or somatic events over time," that set the stage for these subtle behavioral differences that are subsequently amplified.

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