MicroRNAs in Honey Bee Caste Determination.

ABSTRACT: The cellular mechanisms employed by some organisms to produce contrasting morphological and reproductive phenotypes from the same genome remains one of the key unresolved issues in biology. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) use differential feeding and a haplodiploid sex determination system to generate three distinct organismal outcomes from the same genome. Here we investigate the honeybee female and male caste-specific microRNA and transcriptomic molecular signatures during a critical time of larval development. Both previously undetected and novel miRNAs have been discovered, expanding the inventory of these genomic regulators in invertebrates. We show significant differences in the microRNA and transcriptional profiles of diploid females relative to haploid drone males as well as between rep

SUBMITTER: Ashby R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4704047 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature