Transcription profiling of abdomens from wild type and anarchistic strains of worker honey bees to identify genes related to ovary activation
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ABSTRACT: 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.
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.
Project description:Effect of genotype (wildtype vs. anarchist) on gene expression in developing (four-day-old) honeybee worker abdomens. Goal of experiment is to identify genes associated with ovary activation during worker development. These genes are hypothesised to be candidates for the regulation of worker sterility.
Project description:Effect of genotype (wildtype vs. anarchist) on gene expression in developing (four-day-old) honeybee worker brains. Goal of experiment is to identify genes associated with ovary activation during worker development. These genes are hypothesised to be candidates for the regulation of worker sterility.
Project description:This experiment was performed to investigate the effect of the manipulation of social rank on gene expression. Fire ants newly mated queens were paired and placed in nesting chambers. After emergence of workers, queensM-^R behavior was monitored. Once the behavioral observation revealed the social rank of the two cofoundresses (winners and losers), queens were weighed again and re-paired with a different partner. We created the following three groups of queens: a) winner + winner (similar weight), b) loser + loser (similar weight), and c) winner + loser (different weights). Again, we monitored the behavior until the social rank of the newly coupled specimens was evident and we collected 4 new behavioral phenotypes in the same way as above: a) winners switched into losers (win/los), b) losers switched into winners (los/win), c) continuing winners (win/win) and d) continuing losers (los/los).
Project description:Ants are among the most successful animals on earth, with societies of a complexity that rivals our own. These societies are characterized by reproductive division of labor between female queens that can live several years and lay thousands of eggs per day, workers that live only a few months and are sterile, and males that live only a few weeks and do not participate in colony tasks. These striking differences in lifespan and roles are echoed by extensive morphological and physiological divergence. Using the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, we conduct the first genome-wide survey of developmental gene expression levels over 20 time-points from larval to adult stages in workers, queens and males Three castes: Worker, queen & male; four colonies used for each caste (12 colonies total). Timepoints: 0h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 18h, 24h, 36h and 48h (hour timepoints) and once every 24hours until eclosion (day timepoints). Eclosion occured after 15 days for male (21 timepoints), 14 days for queen (20 timepoints) and 12 days for worker larvae (19 timepoints). We used a loop design with direct comparisons of consecutive samples within each cast: two loops in one Dye-direction, two loops in the other for balance. Additionally, 3-5 hybridizations against an unrelated Reference RNA were performed within each replicate loop. Microarray batch is indicated in the description column
Project description:We used microarrays to monitor expression patterns of several thousand genes in the brains of same-aged (10 day old) virgin queens, sterile workers, and reproductive workers in honey bees (Apis mellifera).
Project description:This study considers the physiological modulation of liver proteins due to the supplementation with fish oils under two different dietary backgrounds: low- or high- fat and sucrose diets, and the effect of their combination with an antioxidant agent (grape polyphenols) which provides reducing power. For this scope, a quantitative proteomics approach based on the Isobaric Tag for relative and Absolute Quantitation methodology (iTRAQ)-coupled to nano-LC-MS/MS and complemented with 2D-DIGE analysis were used for determining the regulation of liver proteins exerted by the supplementation with fish oils, polyphenols or their combination of Wistar Kyoto rats in the two chosen dietary backgrounds. This experimental design was useful to investigate if the behavior of fish oils changes when the dietary background is modified and the possible synergy between fish oils and polyphenols. Results show that the capacity of fish oils, polyphenols or their combination for down or up-regulating liver proteins depends on the dietary context. In the background of low-fat low-sucrose healthy diets, 10 different proteins were altered by the sum of three supplements, in opposite to the 45 altered proteins found in the high-fat high-sucrose unhealthy diets. In both situations, fish oils seemed to be the main force for regulating liver proteins, although the addition of polyphenols was able to modulate some fish oils effects. Moreover, we provide evidence of the effect of fish oils and their combination with grape polyphenols for improving biochemical parameters and for reducing enzymes of hepatic lipogenesis and glycolysis, for enhancing fatty acid beta oxidation and insulin signaling and for the amelioration of endoplasmic reticule stress and protein oxidation when are included in an unhealthy diet.
Project description:Influence of a wild type DNA Topoisomerase IB on global transcription profiles in exponentially growing S. cerecisiae cells in SC medium plus 2% of glucose.
Project description:To establish the effect of CPT in the regulation of global transcription in S. cerevisiae, we have used a yeast TOP1 null strain, JEL1Δtop1, bearing a low-copy number plasmid that expresses, under the control of the yeast TOP1 promoter, either a wild-type (wt) yeast Top1p (pCC10) or an inactive Y727F mutant enzyme (pAR7).We determined global transcript levels upon CPT treatments of JEL1Δtop1 cells expressing either a yeast wt or Y727F mutant Top1p.
Project description:Sibling care is a hallmark of the social insects, but its evolution remains challenging to explain. The hypothesis that sibling care evolved from ancestral maternal care in the primitively eusocial insects has been elaborated to involve heterochronic changes in gene expression. This elaboration leads to the prediction that workers in these species will show patterns of gene expression more similar to foundress queens, who express maternal care behavior, than to established queens engaged solely in reproductive behavior. We tested this idea in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris using a microarray platform with ca. 4,500 genes. Unlike in the wasp Polistes metricus, in which support for the above prediction has been obtained, we found that patterns of brain gene expression in foundress and queen bumblebees were more similar to each other than to workers. However, comparisons of lists of differentially expressed genes derived from this study and gene lists from microarray studies in Polistes and the honeybee Apis mellifera suggest that there is a shared set of genes involved in the regulation of related social behaviors across independent eusocial lineages. Together, these results suggest that the multiple independent evolutions of eusociality in the insects involved a combination of shared and different mechanisms.