Transcriptome profiling of the spermatheca identifies genes potentially involved in the long-term sperm storage of ant queens.

ABSTRACT: Females of social Hymenoptera only mate at the beginning of their adult lives and produce offspring until their death. In most ant species, queens live for over a decade, indicating that ant queens can store large numbers of spermatozoa throughout their long lives. To reveal the prolonged sperm storage mechanisms, we identified enriched genes in the sperm-storage organ (spermatheca) relative to those in body samples in Crematogaster osakensis queens using the RNA-sequencing method. The genes encoding antioxidant enzymes, proteases, and extracellular matrix-related genes, and novel genes that have no similar sequences in the public databases were identified. We also performed differential expression analyses between the virgin and mated spermathecae or between the spermathecae at 1-week and

SUBMITTER: Gotoh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5519678 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature