Dataset Information

On the Molecular Basis of Division of Labor in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers: RNA-seq Analysis.

ABSTRACT: The fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren is an important invasive pest. Among S. invicta workers behavioral changes depend on age where younger ants are nurses and older ants foragers. To identify potential genes associated with this division of labor, we compared gene expression between foragers and nurses by high-throughput sequencing. In total, we identified 1,618 genes significantly differently expressed between nurses and foragers, of which 542 were upregulated in foragers and 1,076 were upregulated in nurses. Several pathways related to metabolism were significantly enriched, such as lipid storage and fatty acid biosynthesis, which might contribute to the division of labor in S. invicta. Several genes involved in DNA methylation, transcription, and olfactory responses as well as resistance to stress were differentially expressed between nurses and foragers workers. Finally, a comparison between previously published microarray data and our RNA-seq data in S. invicta shows 116 genes overlap, and the GO term myofibril assembly (GO: 0030239) were simultaneously significantly enriched. These results advance knowledge of potentially important genes and molecular pathways associated with worker division of labor in S. invicta. We hope our dataset will provide . candidate target genes to disrupt organization in S. invicta as a control strategy against this invasive pest.

SUBMITTER: Qiu HL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5469383 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

On the Molecular Basis of Division of Labor in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers: RNA-seq Analysis.

Qiu Hua-Long HL Zhao Cheng-Yin CY He Yu-Rong YR

Journal of insect science (Online) 20170101 2

The fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren is an important invasive pest. Among S. invicta workers behavioral changes depend on age where younger ants are nurses and older ants foragers. To identify potential genes associated with this division of labor, we compared gene expression between foragers and nurses by high-throughput sequencing. In total, we identified 1,618 genes significantly differently expressed between nurses and foragers, of which 542 were upregulated in foragers and 1,076 were upreg ...[more]

PMID: 28365770

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundAdvances in sequencing and analysis tools have facilitated discovery of many new viruses from invertebrates, including ants. Solenopsis invicta is an invasive ant that has quickly spread worldwide causing significant ecological and economic impacts. Its virome has begun to be characterized pertaining to potential use of viruses as natural enemies. Although the S. invicta virome is the best characterized among ants, most studies have been performed in its native range, with less information from invaded areas.MethodsUsing a metatranscriptome approach, we further identified and molecularly characterized virus sequences associated with S. invicta, in two introduced areas, U.S and Taiwan. The data set used here was obtained from different stages (larvae, pupa, and adults) of S. invicta life cycle. Publicly available RNA sequences from GenBank's Sequence Read Archive were downloaded and de novo assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench 20.0.1. Contigs were compared against the non-redundant protein sequences and those showing similarity to viral sequences were further analyzed.ResultsWe characterized five putative new viruses associated with S. invicta transcriptomes. Sequence comparisons revealed extensive divergence across ORFs and genomic regions with most of them sharing less than 40% amino acid identity with those closest homologous sequences previously characterized. The first negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus genomic sequences included in the orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales are reported. In addition, two positive single-strand virus genome sequences and one single strand DNA virus genome sequence were also identified. While the presence of a putative tenuivirus associated with S. invicta was previously suggested to be a contamination, here we characterized and present strong evidence that Solenopsis invicta virus 14 (SINV-14) is a tenui-like virus that has a long-term association with the ant. Furthermore, based on virus sequence abundance compared to housekeeping genes, phylogenetic relationships, and completeness of viral coding sequences, our results suggest that four of five virus sequences reported, those being SINV-14, SINV-15, SINV-16 and SINV-17, may be associated to viruses actively replicating in the ant S. invicta.ConclusionsThe present study expands our knowledge about viral diversity associated with S. invicta in introduced areas with potential to be used as biological control agents, which will require further biological characterization.

Project description:Purpose: We aimed to provide a basis for the adaptive mechanism and a rich resource for the discovery and identification of novel genes involved in the cold stress response in Solenopsis japonica. Retinal transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) to microarray and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT–PCR) methods and to evaluate protocols for optimal high-throughput data analysis Methods: Solenopsis japonica was reared at lab condition, and incubated at 2 different temperature for 24h (9, and 25℃) under dark conditions. RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent and Illumina sequencing was performed at Macrogen. Illumina short reads were quality-filtered and Illumina-based de novo transcriptome assembly was performed. Differential Gene Expression Analysis was studied for different tempearture conditions. Results: Totally 89,657 unigenes was obtained which overall 43,375 were annotated with gene descriptions, gene ontology terms, and metabolic pathways. 86 GO functional sub-groups and 25 EggNOG terms resulted. DEGs with FC≥2 and FC≤-2, P-value<0.05 were screened and were compared at two different temperatures. We found 138 DEG down regulated and 271 DEG up regulated when the S. japonica incubated at 9 ℃ and compared with 25℃ treated group. Comparing transcriptome profiles for differential gene expression resulted various DE proteins and genes, including cytochrome P450, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1, cuticle protein and HSP which have previously been reported to be involved in cold and high temperature resistance. GO analysis revealed that antioxidant activity up-regulated under high temperature stress. Conclusions: we compared the transcriptomes of S. japonica under normal room temperature and low-temperature using RNA-Seq technology based on the high-throughput sequencing. Comparative transcriptome analysis identified many genes and a large number of changes were discovered in metabolic pathway through the GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. Our data will facilitate further molecular investigations and genomic research. Many low-temperature significantly up-regulated genes were first identified in this study. These newly found genes may be important and necessary to S. japonica overwintering and its behavior for adaptation in new environment.

Dataset Information

On the Molecular Basis of Division of Labor in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers: RNA-seq Analysis.

Publications

On the Molecular Basis of Division of Labor in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers: RNA-seq Analysis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets