"Our findings indicate a fundamental genetic program that determines the neuronal circuitry and behavior of worker bees"
This dogma - that bees are little machines "programmed" by genetic code - won't lead very far. A single gene may turn off our auditory system because it controls production of a protein that's necessary for hearing, and loss of hearing would make us less social, but it's a wrong conclusion that the "auditory gene" is what "programs" our social behavior.
IMO, Michael Levin's research is closer to truth. If we extrapolate his ideas to a whole bee colony, we could find that behavior of a bee hive can be changed without messing with genes, although some of the genes make bees receptive to "social cues" that makes such large scale behavior possible.
I don't think anyone is suggesting all bee behavior is explained by this - bees are highly intelligent and can learn all sorts of weird things about manmade objects, which can't possibly be explained by genetics (except that genetics built a powerful "algorithm"). In nature older bees are more effective workers because they spend their lives learning about the environment, including the hive itself.
What is explained by genetics is why honeybee workers immediately start working for the colony, rather than having an "adolescence" where non-larval bees watch older workers for an extended period, or why honeybee workers almost never wander out of the hive and try to live on their own. That side is clearly somewhat instinctual and must have at a genetic or epigenetic component.
Fudnamentally the genes have to code for a biologicaly system that is able to adapt its behaviour well enough to allow for dynamic behaviour while also keeping it on guiderails to make it function as a bee. Importantly a bee emerging from its brood cell immediately gets to work without any training. Where does this information come from if it is not genetic?
Per the paper, one of the first jobs is the 'nurse stage', where they care for other developing bees. It's not impossible that they do that based on their recent experience in the developmental stage. Maybe unlike humans, they don't forget everything from that experience (at what point do human babies forget that?).
This dogma - that bees are little machines "programmed" by genetic code - won't lead very far. A single gene may turn off our auditory system because it controls production of a protein that's necessary for hearing, and loss of hearing would make us less social, but it's a wrong conclusion that the "auditory gene" is what "programs" our social behavior.
IMO, Michael Levin's research is closer to truth. If we extrapolate his ideas to a whole bee colony, we could find that behavior of a bee hive can be changed without messing with genes, although some of the genes make bees receptive to "social cues" that makes such large scale behavior possible.