Fig. 3
From: Beyond Royalactin and a master inducer explanation of phenotypic plasticity in honey bees
A dynamic view of caste determination inspired by Waddington’s epigenetic landscape. A newly hatched female larva, depicted as a yellow ball, moves along a certain trajectory following instructions from the diet she receives from nurse bees. The valleys represent the basins of attractions, which are the most optimal developmental states under the given set of conditions. A larva fed exclusively royal jelly will become a queen (a), whereas a dramatic switch to a less nutritious diet after 4 days will force the larva to take another path resulting in a worker phenotype (b). Although both castes are produced from the same genotype, they have different epigenotypes, described by Waddington as a complex of developmental processes that connect genotype and phenotype, or a set of organising principles to which a certain tissue will be subject during development81,82
