Tissue specific transcription patterns support the kinship theory of intragenomic conflict in honey bees ( Apis mellifera

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Galbraith ◽  
Rong Ma ◽  
Christina M. Grozinger
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
Kinship Theory

scholarly journals Tissue-specific transcriptional patterns underlie seasonal phenotypes in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Bresnahan ◽  
Mehmet Döke ◽  
Tugrul Giray ◽  
Christina Grozinger
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Flight Muscle ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Flight Activity ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Transcriptional Profiles ◽  
Specific Regulation

Faced with adverse conditions, such as winter in temperate regions or hot and dry conditions in tropical regions, many insect species enter a state of diapause, a period of dormancy associated with a reduction or arrest of physical activity, development, and reproduction. Changes in common physiological pathways underlie diapause phenotypes in different insect species. However, most transcriptomic studies of diapause have not simultaneously evaluated and compared expression patterns in different tissues. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) represent a unique model system to study the mechanisms underpinning diapause. In winter, honey bees exhibit a classic diapause phenotype, with reduced metabolic activity, increased physiological nutritional resources, and altered hormonal profiles. However, winter bees actively heat their colony by vibrating their wing muscles; thus, this tissue is not quiescent. Here, we evaluated the transcriptional profiles of flight muscle tissue and fat body tissue (involved in nutrient storage, metabolism and immune function) of winter bees. We also evaluated two behavioral phenotypes of summer bees: nurses, which exhibit high nutritional stores and low flight activity, and foragers, which exhibit low nutritional stores and high flight activity. We found winter bees and nurses have similar fat body transcriptional profiles compared to foragers, whereas winter bees and foragers have similar flight muscle transcriptional profiles compared to nurses. Additionally, differentially expressed genes were enriched in diapause-related GO terms. Thus, honey bees exhibit tissue-specific transcriptional profiles associated with diapause, laying the groundwork for future studies evaluating the mechanisms, evolution, and consequences of this tissue-specific regulation.

scholarly journals Tissue‐specific transcriptional patterns underlie seasonal phenotypes in honey bees ( Apis mellifera )

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean T. Bresnahan ◽  
Mehmet A. Döke ◽  
Tugrul Giray ◽  
Christina M. Grozinger
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Tissue Specific

scholarly journals Tissue-specific transcriptional patterns underlie seasonal phenotypes in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Bresnahan ◽  
Mehmet Döke ◽  
Tugrul Giray ◽  
Christina Grozinger
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Flight Muscle ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Flight Activity ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Transcriptional Profiles ◽  
Specific Regulation

Faced with adverse conditions, such as winter in temperate regions or hot and dry conditions in tropical regions, many insect species enter a state of diapause, a period of dormancy associated with a reduction or arrest of physical activity, development, and reproduction. Changes in common physiological pathways underlie diapause phenotypes in different insect species. However, most transcriptomic studies of diapause have not simultaneously evaluated and compared expression patterns in different tissues. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) represent a unique model system to study the mechanisms underpinning diapause. In winter, honey bees exhibit a classic diapause phenotype, with reduced metabolic activity, increased physiological nutritional resources, and altered hormonal profiles. However, winter bees actively heat their colony by vibrating their wing muscles; thus, this tissue is not quiescent. Here, we evaluated the transcriptional profiles of flight muscle tissue and fat body tissue (involved in nutrient storage, metabolism and immune function) of winter bees. We also evaluated two behavioral phenotypes of summer bees: nurses, which exhibit high nutritional stores and low flight activity, and foragers, which exhibit low nutritional stores and high flight activity. We found winter bees and nurses have similar fat body transcriptional profiles compared to foragers, whereas winter bees and foragers have similar flight muscle transcriptional profiles compared to nurses. Additionally, differentially expressed genes were enriched in diapause-related GO terms. Thus, honey bees exhibit tissue-specific transcriptional profiles associated with diapause, laying the groundwork for future studies evaluating the mechanisms, evolution, and consequences of this tissue-specific regulation.

scholarly journals Testing the kinship theory of intragenomic conflict in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 1020-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Galbraith ◽  
Sarah D. Kocher ◽  
Tom Glenn ◽  
Istvan Albert ◽  
Greg J. Hunt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Worker Reproduction ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
Genetic Stocks ◽  
Specific Prediction ◽  
Kinship Theory ◽  
General Prediction

Sexual reproduction brings genes from two parents (matrigenes and patrigenes) together into one individual. These genes, despite being unrelated, should show nearly perfect cooperation because each gains equally through the production of offspring. However, an individual’s matrigenes and patrigenes can have different probabilities of being present in other relatives, so kin selection could act on them differently. Such intragenomic conflict could be implemented by partial or complete silencing (imprinting) of an allele by one of the parents. Evidence supporting this theory is seen in offspring–mother interactions, with patrigenes favoring acquisition of more of the mother's resources if some of the costs fall on half-siblings who do not share the patrigene. The kinship theory of intragenomic conflict is little tested in other contexts, but it predicts that matrigene–patrigene conflict may be rife in social insects. We tested the hypothesis that honey bee worker reproduction is promoted more by patrigenes than matrigenes by comparing across nine reciprocal crosses of two distinct genetic stocks. As predicted, hybrid workers show reproductive trait characteristics of their paternal stock, (indicating enhanced activity of the patrigenes on these traits), greater patrigenic than matrigenic expression, and significantly increased patrigenic-biased expression in reproductive workers. These results support both the general prediction that matrigene–patrigene conflict occurs in social insects and the specific prediction that honey bee worker reproduction is driven more by patrigenes. The success of these predictions suggests that intragenomic conflict may occur in many contexts where matrigenes and patrigenes have different relatednesses to affected kin.

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