Project description:Honey bees move through a series of in-hive tasks (M-bM-^@M-^\nursingM-bM-^@M-^]) to outside tasks (M-bM-^@M-^\foragingM-bM-^@M-^]) that coincident with an intense increase in metabolic activity. Social context can cause worker bees to speed up, or slow down this process and foragers may revert back to their earlier in hive tasks accompanied by reversion to earlier physiological states. To determine if the transcriptional profile of forager bees can revert, or if the effects of flight on gene expression are irreversible, we used whole-genome microarrays. Brain tissue and flight muscle exhibited independent patterns of expression during behavioral transitions, with patterns of expression in the brain reflecting both age and behavior, while flight muscle exhibited primarily age-related patterns of expression. Our data suggest that the transition from little to no flight (nurse) to intense flight (forager), rather than the amount of flight has a major effect on gene expression. Following behavioral reversion there was a partial reversion in gene expression but some aspects of forager expression patterns, such as those for genes involved in immune function, remained. These data suggest an epigenetic control and energy balance role in honey bee functional senescence. Brains and thoraces from the same individuals of all behavioral groups were compared on a total of 132 arrays. The samples were hybridized against each other using a loop design. The groups tested are outlined as follows: Typical aged nurse 'YN' (8-10 days old; <1 day flight experience), Precocious forager 'PF' (8 to 10 days old; 2 to 3 days flight experience), Overaged nurse 'ON' (19 to 22 days old; < 1 day flight experience), Forager - low flight 'TFL' (19 to 22 days old; 2 to 3 days flight experience), Forager - high flight 'TFH' ( 19 to 22 days old; 7 to 9 days flight experience), Forager - old 'OF' (25 to 26 days old; 10 to 12 days flight experience), Reverted nurse 'RN' (25 to 26 days old; 7 to 9 days flight experience). The comparisons are outlined as follows: YN:ON (6 arrays), ON:RN (6 arrays), RN:TFH (6 arrays), TFH:TFL (6 arrays), TFL:PF (6 arrays), PF:YN (6 arrays), ON:TFL (12 arrays), YN:OF (6 arrays), OF:RN (6 arrays), RN:YN (6 arrays). Each comparison was done for individual brains and thoraces. Total: 132 arrays

Project description:The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, is a serious agricultural pest and important insect model to study insect digestion and feeding behavior. The gut is one of the primary interfaces between the insect and its environment. Nevertheless, knowledge on the gut transcriptome of L. migratoria is still very limited. With the development of two EST databases from L. migratoria (whole body and central nervous system (CNS)) and one EST database from Schistocerca gregaria (CNS), an abundance of transcript data was made available for locusts. In addition, the genome of Locusta was also recently published in an effort to create a better understanding of swarm formation and flight behavior (Wang et al., 2014). While the transcript composition of nervous tissue was relatively well studied after the development of the specific CNS-derived EST-databases from both L. migratoria and S. gregaria, little transcript profiling information is available for the digestive system at the moment. Locusts are, however, widely used as physiological model organisms regarding the regulation and control of feeding and digestion, and improved knowledge on the gut transcriptome could contribute significantly to a better understanding of their gut physiology. Therefore, we aimed to use the available sequence data to specifically identify gut-expressed transcripts in 5th larval locusts. By means of two independent self-self microarray hybridizations for two distinct tissues, the gut and the brain, a selection could be made of those ESTs that are present in the gut and/or the brain. Here, sequences that were found to be expressed in gut but not brain were further functionally annotated to shed new light on the complex physiology of the locust digestive system. Since the gut is the single most important organ in digestion, and both tissues are assumed to be involved in the regulation thereof, the resulting subset of sequences can also be valuable for further in-depth studies on the regulation of digestion. In addition, the method allowed us to rank the signal intensities, using them as a rough indicator to compare relative transcript abundance in the gut. Therefore, the data complement previously published transcript and genomic data, and provide a clear overview of the expressed portion of the genome in the gut. Taken together, the present data provide significant insight into locust larval gut physiology, and will be valuable for future studies on the insect gut. Self-self hybridisation of Cy5- and Cy3-labeled samples. One biological repeat per tissue type, i.e., brain and gut. Gut is a combination of foregut, midgut, gastric caeca and hindgut. Per tissue type, a pool was made from RNA from 3 pools of 5 locusts, and this for 3 different feeding conditions, resulting in samples derived from a total of 45 locust larvae. Feeding conditions were normally fed, fed with diet containing additional protease inhibitors (PIs), and starved locusts.

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