scholarly journals Sex-specific molecular specialization and activity rhythm-dependent gene expression in honey bee antennae

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (12) ◽  
pp. jeb217406
Author(s):  
Rikesh Jain ◽  
Axel Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Activity Rhythm

scholarly journals Sex-specific molecular specialization and activity rhythm dependent gene expression changes in honey bee antennae

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikesh Jain ◽  
Axel Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Clock Genes ◽  
Activity Rhythm ◽  
Neuronal Communication ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Pheromone Concentration ◽  
Olfactory Receptor Genes

ABSTRACTEusocial insects, like honey bees, which show an elaborate division of labor involving morphologically and physiologically specialized phenotypes provide a unique toolkit to study molecular underpinnings of behavior as well as neural processing. In this study, we performed an extensive RNA-seq based comparison of gene expression levels in the antennae of honey bee drones and foragers collected at different time of days and activity states to identify molecules involved in peripheral olfactory processing and provide insights into distinct strategies in sensory processing. First, honey bee drone and worker antennae differ in the number of olfactory receptor genes (ORs) showing a biased expression pattern. Only 19 Ors were higher expressed in drone antennae, whereas 54 Ors were higher expressed in workers. Second, drone antennae showed predominant higher expression of genes involved in energy metabolism, and worker antennae showed a higher expression of genes involved in neuronal communication. Third, drones and afternoon-trained foragers showed similar daily changes in the expression of major clock genes, per and cry2. Most of the other genes showing changes with the onset of daily activity were specific to drones and foragers suggesting sex-specific circadian changes in antennae. Drone antennae are specialized to detect small amounts of queen’s pheromone and quickly respond to changes in pheromone concentration involving energetically costly action potentials, whereas forager antennae are predominantly involved in behavioral context dependent detection and discrimination of complex odor mixtures which requires mechanisms of sensory filtering and neural plasticity.

scholarly journals DNA methylation is not a driver of gene expression reprogramming in young honey bee workers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. M. Cardoso-Junior ◽  
Boris Yagound ◽  
Isobel Ronai ◽  
Emily J. Remnant ◽  
Klaus Hartfelder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Differential Gene Expression ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Gene Body ◽  
Gene Body Methylation ◽  
Differential Gene ◽  
Honey Bee Workers ◽  
Methylation Patterns

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.

scholarly journals Transcriptional Control of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Major Royal Jelly Proteins by 20-Hydroxyecdysone

Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Winkler ◽  
Frank Sieg ◽  
Anja Buttstedt
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Juvenile Hormone ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Transcriptional Control ◽  
Royal Jelly ◽  
Adult Worker ◽  
Gene Expression Dynamics

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.

scholarly journals Paternally‐biased gene expression follows kin‐selected predictions in female honey bee embryos

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1523-1533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M. A. Smith ◽  
Boris Yagound ◽  
Emily J. Remnant ◽  
Charles S. P. Foster ◽  
Gabriele Buchmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bee

scholarly journals Effects of Flight on Gene Expression and Aging in the Honey Bee Brain and Flight Muscle

Insects ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Margotta ◽  
Georgina Mancinelli ◽  
Azucena Benito ◽  
Andrew Ammons ◽  
Stephen Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Flight Muscle

scholarly journals Honey Bee Viruses, Colony Health, and Antiviral Defense

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Katie F. Daughenbaugh ◽  
Alex J. McMenamin ◽  
Laura M. Brutscher ◽  
Fenali Parekh ◽  
Michelle L. Flenniken
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Heat Shock ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Antiviral Defense ◽  
Deformed Wing Virus ◽  
Antiviral Responses ◽  
Model Virus ◽  
Virus Abundance

Honey bee colony losses are influenced by multiple abiotic and biotic factors, including viruses. To investigate the effects of RNA viruses on honey bees, we infected bees with a model virus (Sindbis-GFP) in the presence or absence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). In honey bees, dsRNA is the substrate for sequence-specific RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated antiviral defense and is a trigger of sequence-independent\antiviral responses. Transcriptome sequencing identified more than 200 differentially expressed genes, including genes in the RNAi, Toll, Imd, JAK-STAT, and heat shock response pathways, and many uncharacterized genes. To confirm the virus limiting role of two genes (i.e., dicer and mf116383) in honey bees, we utilized RNAi to reduce their expression in vivo and determined that the virus abundance increased. To evaluate the role of the heat shock stress response in antiviral defense, bees were heat stressed post-virus infection and the virus abundance and gene expression were assessed. Heat-stressed bees had reduced virus levels and a greater expression of several heat shock protein encoding genes (hsps) compared to the controls. To determine if these genes are universally associated with antiviral defense, bees were infected with another model virus, Flock House virus (FHV), or deformed wing virus and the gene expression was assessed. The expression of dicer was greater in bees infected with either FHV or Sindbis-GFP compared to the mock-infected bees, but not in the deformed wing virus-infected bees. To further investigate honey bee antiviral defense mechanisms and elucidate the function of key genes (dicer, ago-2, mf116383, and hsps) at the cellular level, primary honey bee larval hemocytes were transfected with dsRNA or infected with the Lake Sinai virus 2 (LSV2). These studies indicate that mf116383 and hsps mediate dsRNA detection and that MF116383 is involved in limiting LSV2 infection. Together, these results further our understanding of honey bee antiviral defense, particularly dsRNA-mediated antiviral responses, at both the individual bee and cellular levels.

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