MKast is dispensable for normal development and sexual maturation of the male European honeybee.

ABSTRACT: The European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) exhibits various social behaviors. The molecular and neural mechanisms underlying these behaviors have long been explored, but causal relations between genes or neurons and behaviors remain to be elucidated because effective gene manipulation methods in the honeybee have not been available until recently. We recently established a basic technology to produce mutant honeybee drones using CRISPR/Cas9. Here we produced mutant drones using CRISPR/Cas9 targeting mKast, which is preferentially expressed in a certain subtype of class I Kenyon cells that comprise the mushroom bodies in the honeybee brain. By immunoblot analysis, we showed that mKast protein expression was completely lost in the mutant drone heads. In addition, during the production process

SUBMITTER: Kohno H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6104065 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature