scholarly journals Activity-dependent gene expression in honey bee mushroom bodies in response to orientation flight

2013 ◽  
Vol 216 (11) ◽  
pp. 2031-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Lutz ◽  
G. E. Robinson
2011 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. e114
Author(s):  
Atsumi Mori ◽  
Mamoru Fukuchi ◽  
Yuya Kirikoshi ◽  
Ichiro Takasaki ◽  
Aiko Azegami ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. M. Cardoso-Junior ◽  
Boris Yagound ◽  
Isobel Ronai ◽  
Emily J. Remnant ◽  
Klaus Hartfelder ◽  
...  

AbstractIntragenic DNA methylation, also called gene body methylation, is an evolutionarily-conserved epigenetic mechanism in animals and plants. In social insects, gene body methylation is thought to contribute to behavioral plasticity, for example between foragers and nurse workers, by modulating gene expression. However, recent studies have suggested that the majority of DNA methylation is sequence-specific, and therefore cannot act as a flexible mediator between environmental cues and gene expression. To address this paradox, we examined whole-genome methylation patterns in the brains and ovaries of young honey bee workers that had been subjected to divergent social contexts: the presence or absence of the queen. Although these social contexts are known to bring about extreme changes in behavioral and reproductive traits through differential gene expression, we found no significant differences between the methylomes of workers from queenright and queenless colonies. In contrast, thousands of regions were differentially methylated between colonies, and these differences were not associated with differential gene expression in a subset of genes examined. Methylation patterns were highly similar between brain and ovary tissues and only differed in nine regions. These results strongly indicate that DNA methylation is not a driver of differential gene expression between tissues or behavioral morphs. Finally, despite the lack of difference in methylation patterns, queen presence affected the expression of all four DNA methyltransferase genes, suggesting that these enzymes have roles beyond DNA methylation. Therefore, the functional role of DNA methylation in social insect genomes remains an open question.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 471-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian Belgrad ◽  
R. Douglas Fields

The temporal coding of action potential activity is fundamental to nervous system function. Here we consider how gene expression in neurons is regulated by specific patterns of action potential firing, with an emphasis on new information on epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Patterned action potential activity activates intracellular signaling networks selectively in accordance with the kinetics of activation and inactivation of second messengers, phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of protein kinases, and cytoplasmic and nuclear calcium dynamics, which differentially activate specific transcription factors. Increasing evidence also implicates activity-dependent regulation of epigenetic mechanisms to alter chromatin architecture. Changes in three-dimensional chromatin structure, including chromatin compaction, looping, double-stranded DNA breaks, histone and DNA modification, are altered by action potential activity to selectively inhibit or promote transcription of specific genes. These mechanisms of activity-dependent regulation of gene expression are important in neural development, plasticity, and in neurological and psychological disorders.


Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Winkler ◽  
Frank Sieg ◽  
Anja Buttstedt

One of the first tasks of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) during their lifetime is to feed the larval offspring. In brief, young workers (nurse bees) secrete a special food jelly that contains a large amount of unique major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs). The regulation of mrjp gene expression is not well understood, but the large upregulation in well-fed nurse bees suggests a tight repression until, or a massive induction upon, hatching of the adult worker bees. The lipoprotein vitellogenin, the synthesis of which is regulated by the two systemic hormones 20-hydroxyecdysone and juvenile hormone, is thought to be a precursor for the production of MRJPs. Thus, the regulation of mrjp expression by the said systemic hormones is likely. This study focusses on the role of 20-hydroxyecdysone by elucidating its effect on mrjp gene expression dynamics. Specifically, we tested whether 20-hydroxyecdysone displayed differential effects on various mrjps. We found that the expression of the mrjps (mrjp1–3) that were finally secreted in large amounts into the food jelly, in particular, were down regulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone treatment, with mrjp3 showing the highest repression value.


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