MicroRNAs Associated with Caste Determination and Differentiation in a Primitively Eusocial Insect.

ABSTRACT: In eusocial Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), queen and worker adult castes typically arise via environmental influences. A fundamental challenge is to understand how a single genome can thereby produce alternative phenotypes. A powerful approach is to compare the molecular basis of caste determination and differentiation along the evolutionary trajectory between primitively and advanced eusocial species, which have, respectively, relatively undifferentiated and strongly differentiated adult castes. In the advanced eusocial honeybee, Apis mellifera, studies suggest that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the molecular basis of caste determination and differentiation. To investigate how miRNAs affect caste in eusocial evolution, we used deep sequencing and Northern blots to isol

SUBMITTER: Collins DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5374498 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature