Project description:We used RNA-se to compare gene expression patterns in workers of the bumble bee Bombus impatiens in response to the queen, the brood, both or none.
Project description:To study the underlying molecular mechanisms during the Varroa destructor life cycle, we carried out transcriptomic profiling of seven stages: young mites (collected from P8 to P9 brood cells), phoretic mites (collected on adult bees), arresting mites (collected in unsealed L5 brood cells), pre-laying mites (collected from sealed brood cells containing moving larva), laying mites (collected from sealed brood cells containing pre-pupae), post-laying mites (collected from capped brood cells containing purple-eye and white-body pupae P5), emerging mites (collected from P8 to P9 brood cells). In addition, we sampled non-reproducing mites (collected from P5 brood cells, but without offspring), males (collected from P8 to P9 brood cells), and phoretic mites artificially reared in cages with adult bees. This study was performed using Apis mellifera L. honey bee colonies naturally infested by Varroa destructor mites. Adult mites were collected from 4 unrelated colonies.
Project description:During the nest-founding phase of the bumble bee colony cycle, queens undergo striking changes in maternal care behavior. Early in the founding phase, prior to the emergence of workers in the nest, queens are reproductive and also provision and feed their offspring. However, later in the founding phase, queens cease feeding offspring and become specialized on reproduction. This transition is synchronized with the emergence of workers in the colony, who assume the task of feeding their siblings. Using a social manipulation experiment, we tested the hypothesis that workers socially regulate the transition from feeding brood to specialization on reproduction in nest-founding bumble bee queens. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that early-stage queens with workers prematurely added to their nests reduce their brood-feeding behavior and increase egg-laying, and likewise, late-stage queens increase their brood-feeding behavior and decrease egg-laying when workers are removed from their nests. Further, brood-feeding and egg-laying behavior were negatively correlated in these queens. We used an Agilent brain EST-based microarray to explore a second hypothesis, that workers alter brain gene expression in nest-founding queens. We found evidence that brain gene expression in nest-founding queens is altered by the presence of workers, with the effect much stronger in late-stage founding queens. Additionally, expression levels of some genes were correlated with quantitative differences in brood-feeding and egg-laying behavior. This study provides new insights into how the transition from feeding brood to specialization on reproduction in bumble bee queens is regulated during the nest initiation phase of the colony cycle.
Project description:Expression profiling of honey bee brains exposed to brood pheromone. Exposure was performed in colonies and young (5 days-old) and old bees (15 days-old) were analyzed .
Project description:The hypopharyngeal gland (HG) is the main site of the synthesis and secretion of royal jelly protein (RJP), and shows high plasticity. To identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that affect the development of HG and the synthesis and secretion of RJP, we performed a digital gene expression analysis of 9 d Apis mellifera under different conditions of nutrition and exposure to brood pheromone.Six RNA-seq libraries were generated using RNA extracted from 9 d bee HGs. A total of 2801 DEGs were identified on the basis of at least one pairwise comparison, among which 205, 1617 and 2328 genes were differentially expressed in comparisons between the Pollen group and the Honey group, the Brood group and Pollen group and the Brood group and Honey group respectively. The Brood group exhibited the highest number of DEGs, suggesting that brood pheromone plays a key role in the HG ontogeny. A total of 1991 genes were mapped to 129 canonical signaling pathways found in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the pathways associated with ribosome function and protein processing were significantly enriched.
Project description:The hypopharyngeal gland (HG) is the main site of the synthesis and secretion of royal jelly protein (RJP), and shows high plasticity. To identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that affect the development of HG and the synthesis and secretion of RJP, we performed a digital gene expression analysis of 9 d Apis mellifera under different conditions of nutrition and exposure to brood pheromone.Six RNA-seq libraries were generated using RNA extracted from 9 d bee HGs. A total of 2801 DEGs were identified on the basis of at least one pairwise comparison, among which 205, 1617 and 2328 genes were differentially expressed in comparisons between the Pollen group and the Honey group, the Brood group and Pollen group and the Brood group and Honey group respectively. The Brood group exhibited the highest number of DEGs, suggesting that brood pheromone plays a key role in the HG ontogeny. A total of 1991 genes were mapped to 129 canonical signaling pathways found in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the pathways associated with ribosome function and protein processing were significantly enriched. Hypopharyngeal gland mRNA profiles of 9-day old honeybees under three conditions (one control and two treatments) were generated by deep sequencing, in duplicate, using Illumina Hiseq 2500 platform.
Project description:Apis mellifera intermissa (Buttel-Reepen, 1906) is the native honeybee subspecies of Algeria. A.m.intermissa occurs in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, between the Atlas and the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts (Ruttner, 1988), in an area of more than 2500 km long. Intermissa indicates the position through this bee races between tropical Africa and European breeds (Peyvel, 1994). The settlement area of the Tellian extends from Tunisia to Morocco. Ruttner et al (1978) describes the pure Tellian. It is a black hair of his coat poverty brings out the black color. It is a small size, there are some times light illumination on the tergites. This bee is very aggressive, nervous, sick to take part, as swarms huge fall and even produced many brood and can build up to one hundred queen cells (Le Conte, 2002). A.m.intermissa is prone to swarming, shows an aggressive behaviour and an abundant use of propolis (Ruttner 1988). This study is part of the project funded by the USAID Grant No. TA-MOU-08-M29-075.
2016-02-01 | GSE45464 | GEO
Project description:Coevolution with hosts underpins speciation in brood parasitic cuckoos
Project description:Social organization is commonly dynamic with extreme examples in annual eusocial insects ("annual superorganisms"), but the signals and mechanisms regulating social organization remained elusive. In annual bumble bee colonies, larvae with a close contact to a queen do not differentiate into gynes, pupate at an earlier age, and are commonly smaller than siblings that do not contact a queen. We combined detailed observations, proteomics, microRNA transcriptomics, and gland removal surgery, to study the regulation of brood development and division of labor in the model bumble bee Bombus terrestris. We found that regurgitates fed to larvae by queens and workers differ in their protein and microRNA composition. The proteome of the regurgitate overlaps significantly with that of the mandibular (MG) and hypopharyngeal glands (HPG), suggesting that these exocrine glands are the sources of some regurgitate proteins. The MG and HPG proteomes , but not that of the salivary glands, differed between queens and workers, with the caste-specificity preserved for the MG and regurgitate proteomes. Queens subjected to a surgical removal of the MG showed normal behavior and brood care, but failed to manipulate the developmental program of the brood they reared. These findings suggest that substances in the queen MG are fed to larvae and influence their developmental program. As the colony grows, an increasing number of workers feed larvae and by that reduce the effects of the queen substances, such that she can no longer manipulate the development of all larvae, and the colony switches from producing workers (ergonomic phase) to gynes (reproductive phase).
Project description:LC-ESI-MS/MS data files (positive and negative ion monitoring modes) of samples collected from three colonies of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis: honey, fermented pollen, nurse bees, pupae, larvae, larval food from brood cells with eggs, larval food from brood cells with larvae, brood fungus, cerumen, propolis, colony entrance and the controls.