Phenotypic plasticity shapes genome architecture in the honeybee Apis mellifera (RNA-seq)
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Apis mellifera
PROVIDER: GSE120561 | GEO | 2019/09/17
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:Female honeybees are specified as workers or queens based on diet during early development. Workers are essentially sterile with a reduced number of ovarioles and no spermatheca. In the presence of the queen (queen mandibular pheromone) and her brood, worker ovaries are kept in an inactive quiescent state. If the queen is removed, or lost, worker bees are able to sense this change in their environment and their ovaries undergo complete remodelling producing unfertilised haploid eggs that will produce male (drone bees). In this study we analyse gene expression in queen, worker, and laying worker ovaries using RNA-seq and explore differences in the chromatin landscape (focussing on H3K27me3).
2019-09-17 | GSE120560 | GEO
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of brain tissue of was performed by RNA-SEQ in workers, queens and males. The sex and caste specific expressed and spliced genes were examined comparing drone, worker and queen honeybees.
2013-03-27 | GSE45408 | GEO
Project description:Honeybees are very important eusocial insects and are involved in the pollination of many plants. Queen bees and worker bees develop from the same fertilized eggs, and are thus genetically identical despite their substantial behavioural and physiological differences. The mechanism governing developmental differences between worker and queen bees has always attracted much interest. While there are several reports on mRNA expression related to caste differentiation, no systematic investigation of small RNAs has thus far been carried out. Results: Using deep sequencing we systematically profiled small RNA expression in 4th-6th day worker larvae and queen larvae (the critical stages at which the fates of workers and queens are determined), and found that 38 miRNAs were differentially expressed between worker and queen larvae. In addition, 639 mature miRNA candidates were identified in our work for the first time, of which, 526 were expressed only in workers (318) or queens (208). Conclusion: We present the first profile of honeybee small RNAs and explore the mechanism of caste differentiation between worker and queen bees. Caste-specific expression patterns and large discrepancies in small RNA profiles between worker and queen bees indicate that small RNAs may be related to the differential development of worker and queen bee larvae. Results presented here will make a valuable contribution to understanding the caste switch between worker and queen bees.
2014-07-28 | GSE52630 | GEO
Project description:In honey bees (Apis mellifera), the reproductive queen produces a pheromonal signal that regulates many aspects of worker behavior and physiology and is critical for maintaining colony organization. Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) inhibits worker reproduction, attracts workers from a short distance (retinue response), inhibits the rearing of new queens, modulates age-related division of labor and globally alters brain gene expression in worker bees. Interestingly, substantial variation in worker retinue responses to QMP has been found between colonies, but the molecular and physiological bases for variation in individual responses to the queen have not been characterized. Here, we demonstrate that individual retinue response is negatively correlated with traits associated with reproductive potential. Workers with low response to QMP have more ovarioles and higher levels of vitellogenin transcripts than workers with a high response to QMP, suggesting that workers with greater reproductive potential may be attempting to escape queen control. Retinue response appears to be associated with a suite of behavioral and physiological traits that may be pleiotropically linked. However, while these phenotypes are all correlated at the organismal level, the underlying brain expression patterns and gene networks associated with each trait are independent, suggesting that these phenotypes are uncoupled at the molecular level in adult bees. These studies provide insights into the ultimate and proximate causes of natural variation in pheromone response in honey bees.
2008-12-31 | E-MEXP-1724 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Honeybees are very important eusocial insects and are involved in the pollination of many plants. Queen bees and worker bees develop from the same fertilized eggs, and are thus genetically identical despite their substantial behavioural and physiological differences. The mechanism governing developmental differences between worker and queen bees has always attracted much interest. While there are several reports on mRNA expression related to caste differentiation, no systematic investigation of small RNAs has thus far been carried out. Results: Using deep sequencing we systematically profiled small RNA expression in 4th-6th day worker larvae and queen larvae (the critical stages at which the fates of workers and queens are determined), and found that 38 miRNAs were differentially expressed between worker and queen larvae. In addition, 639 mature miRNA candidates were identified in our work for the first time, of which, 526 were expressed only in workers (318) or queens (208). Conclusion: We present the first profile of honeybee small RNAs and explore the mechanism of caste differentiation between worker and queen bees. Caste-specific expression patterns and large discrepancies in small RNA profiles between worker and queen bees indicate that small RNAs may be related to the differential development of worker and queen bee larvae. Results presented here will make a valuable contribution to understanding the caste switch between worker and queen bees. Three healthy 10-frame colonies of ‘Zhenongda No.1’- a high-yielding royal jelly breed of Apis mellifera ligustica , were maintained at the Huajiachi campus of Zhejiang University. In each colony, the queen laid eggs over a period of 24 hours in one empty frame which was subsequently moved to an egg-free super-chamber. After 66 hours (less than 18 hours after hatching), we transferred 150 larvae into queen cups to rear queens in each colony and put the queen cup frames into their corresponding colonies. 40-60 worker larvae and queen larvae were collected from each colony after 4 days (73~90 h after hatching), 5 days (97~114 h after hatching) and 6 days (121~138 h after hatching). The larval samples were collected into 50 ml tubes, immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80C until being used for RNA extraction. After total RNA was extracted and quantified , relative equal amounts of total RNAs from each of the three sampling days were pooled into respectively worker and queen samples, and the fraction of small RNAs less than 30nt long was retained and sequenced on the Illumina/Solexa high-throughput platform (HTP).
2014-07-28 | E-GEOD-52630 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Responses to social cues, such as pheromones, can be modified by genotype, physiology, or environmental context. Honey bee queens produce a pheromone (queen mandibular pheromone; QMP) which regulates many aspects of worker bee behavior and physiology. Forager honey bees are less responsive to QMP than young nurse bees engaged in brood care, suggesting that physiological changes associated with behavioral maturation may modulate response to this pheromone. Since cGMP is a major regulator of behavioral maturation in honey bee workers, we examined its role in modulating worker responses to QMP. Treatment with a cGMP analog, 8-Br-cGMP, resulted in significant reductions in both behavioral and physiological responses to QMP in young caged workers. Treatment significantly reduced attraction to QMP (the retinue response) and inhibited the QMP-mediated increase in vitellogenin levels in the fat bodies of worker bees. Genome-wide analysis of brain gene expression patterns demonstrated that cGMP has a larger effect on expression levels than QMP, and that QMP has specific effects in the presence of cGMP, suggesting that some responses to QMP may be dependent on an individual beesM-^R physiological state. Several functional gene categories were significantly differentially expressed, including genes involved in regulating GTPase activity, phototransduction, immunity, and carboxylic acid transmembrane transporter activity. Overall, our data suggest that cGMP-mediated processes play a large role in modulating responses to queen pheromone in honey bees, at the behavioral, physiological and molecular levels.
2011-06-15 | E-MEXP-3135 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Royal jelly (RJ) is a proteinaceous secretion of the hypopharyngeal glands (HGs) in the head of honeybee workers. It is a critical food for queen bees and young larvae that decides the fate of fertilized eggs in developing into either queen bees or worker bees during the early larval stages. RJ is also widely used in humans for health promotion as agent, such as antibacterial, antioxidant, and antiaging properties. To increase RJ yields, a stock of high RJ producing honeybees (RJBs) has genetically selected from Italian honeybees (ITBs) in China since 1980s. To date, one colony of RJBs can produce more than 10 kg of RJ per year, a yield that is 10-times greater than that produced by a colony of ITBs. To elucidate the mechanism of the enforced gland performance in producing RJ in RJBs, the spatio-temporal HG proteomes of newly emerged bees, nurse bees, and forager bees, were compared between the ITBs and RJBs. Proteins in the critical pathways that are implicated in the secretory activity of RJ in HGs are validated biochemically and biologically by manipulating the NBs into extended nursing periods and the FBs to revert into NBs. This will provide a novel mechanistic insight into the HGs achieving an enhanced biological mission of producing the valuable bee-product, RJ.
2019-01-11 | PXD010898 | Pride
Project description:Olfaction system plays a fundamental role in mediating insect behavior. Besides, the division of queen, worker and drone, honeybee also exhibit an age-dependent division of labor. Worker bees perform discrete sets of behaviors throughout their lifespan. These behavioral states rely on the sense of the environments and chemical communications via their olfactory system - antennae. However, the olfactory adaption mechanism of workers in these processes of behavioral development is still unclear. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of gene expression in Apis mellifera antenna of newly emerged workers, nurses, foragers, and defenders using RNA-seq. We found that antennae tissues continue to develop after transformation from pupae to adult. Additionally, we identified both developmental and labor-division specific expressed genes. We validated the unexpected discovery of major royal jelly protein genes, which are highly and specifically expressed in nurse honeybee workers. We further identified and validated that significant alternative splicing events are also involved in the development and division of labor. These findings provided a comprehensive transcriptome profile and new perspective into the molecular mechanism underlying honeybee division of labor.
2024-10-24 | GSE221246 | GEO
Project description:This experiment examines differences in gene expression between wildtype and an experimental strain (anarchistic) of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera). Mature wildtype and anarchistic workers tend to have non-active and active ovaries, respectively. Thus young workers from these strains are expected to show differential expression at loci involved in the regulation of worker reproduction, which occurs via arrhenotokous parthenogenesis.
2008-12-09 | E-MEXP-1549 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:This experiment examines differences in gene expression between wildtype and an experimental strain (anarchistic) of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera). Mature wildtype and anarchistic workers tend to have non-active and active ovaries, respectively. Thus young workers from these strains are expected to show differential expression at loci involved in the regulation of worker reproduction, which occurs via arrhenotokous parthenogenesis.
2008-07-11 | E-MEXP-1552 | biostudies-arrayexpress