Project description:While Apis cerana cerana, like Apis mellifera, undergoes a behavioral transition from in-hive nursing to outdoor foraging duties, nothing is known about the genes underlying this social signal-triggered aged-related transition in this species. Here, we simultaneously sequenced the head transcriptomes of the 7-day-old normal nurses (N7BY), 18- and 22-day-old normal foragers (N18CJ and N22CJ), 7-day-old precocious foragers (Tq7CJ) and 22-day-old overaged or reverted nurses (Tq22BY) of A. cerana cerana by RNA-seq and made a 3-tier comparison (from pairwise to group-wise and between-group) to unravel the genes associated with this transition. Six pairwise comparisons revealed 165-492 differentially expressed genes between nurses vs. foragers. Subsequent 3 group-wise and 1 between-group comparisons narrowed the transition-associated genes down to 18 nurse- and 41 forager-unique genes and 29 (14 and 15 genes upregulated in nurses and foragers, respectively) differentially expressed genes between the 3 types of foragers and 2 types of nurses. The uniquely expressed genes are usually low-abundance long noncoding RNAs, transcription factors, transcription coactivators, RNA-binding proteins, kinases or phosphatases involved in signaling transduction and/or gene expression regulation, whereas the differentially expressed genes are often high-abundance downstream genes that directly perform the tasks of nurses or foragers, such as major royal jelly proteins for nurses and the genes involved in sugar/protein digestion, lipids/fatty acids metabolism, plant allelochemicals detoxification and defense against pathogens and predators for foragers. Mapping of the clean reads to the published A. mellifera genome uncovered that the 3 types of foragers had a greater percentage of reads from annotated exons and intergenic regions, whereas the 2 types of nurses had a greater percentage of reads from introns. Taken together, these results suggest that the reciprocal nurse-forager behavioral transition of the A. cerana cerana is regulated by a social signal-triggered intron-exon/intergenic epigenetic shift and the resulted transcriptional shift of the nurse- and forager-associated genes.

Project description:Honeybee brain has distHoneybee brain has distinct anatomical and functional regions, knowledge on molecular underpinnings of sub-organ to achieve the distinct neural function and the difference between the eastern and western honeybees are still missing. Here, the proteomes of three sub-organs of eastern and western honeybee brains were compared. Mushroom bodies (MBs) and optical lobes (OLs) may by employed similar proteome architectures to drive their domain-specific neural activity in both bee species. In MBs, protein metabolism and Ca2+ transmembrane transport are the key role players in driving the learning and memory by modulating the synaptic structure and signal transduction to consolidate memory trace. In OLs, ribonucleoside metabolism and energy production play major roles to underpin visual system by maintaining G-protein cycle and membrane electrical charge potential. However, in antennal lobes (ALs), it has evolved distinct proteome settings to prime the olfactory learning and memory in two bee species. In ALs of Apis cerana cerana (Acc), actin cytoskeleton organization is key for plasticity of glomeruli and intracellular transport to sustain the olfactory signaling. Whereas, in ALs of Apis mellifera ligustica (Aml), hydrogen and hydrogen ion transport are vital to support olfactory process by supplying energy and maintaining molecule transport. Noticeably, in ALs of Acc, the exclusively enriched functional groups acting as second messenger and neurontransmitter of signal transduction, and the enhanced protein metabolism to regulate the plasticity of synaptic structure for formation of memory, suggest that Acc may have evolved a better sense of smell than that of Aml. Our first proteome data is helpful as starting point for further analysis of neural activity in brain sub-area of honeybee and other insects.inct anatomical and functional regions, knowledge on molecular underpinnings of sub-organ to achieve the distinct neural function and the difference between the eastern and western honeybees are still missing. Here, the proteomes of three sub-organs of eastern and western honeybee brains were compared. Mushroom bodies (MBs) and optical lobes (OLs) may by employed similar proteome architectures to drive their domain-specific neural activity in both bee species. In MBs, protein metabolism and Ca2+ transmembrane transport are the key role players in driving the learning and memory by modulating the synaptic structure and signal transduction to consolidate memory trace. In OLs, ribonucleoside metabolism and energy production play major roles to underpin visual system by maintaining G-protein cycle and membrane electrical charge potential. However, in antennal lobes (ALs), it has evolved distinct proteome settings to prime the olfactory learning and memory in two bee species. In ALs of Apis cerana cerana (Acc), actin cytoskeleton organization is key for plasticity of glomeruli and intracellular transport to sustain the olfactory signaling. Whereas, in ALs of Apis mellifera ligustica (Aml), hydrogen and hydrogen ion transport are vital to support olfactory process by supplying energy and maintaining molecule transport. Noticeably, in ALs of Acc, the exclusively enriched functional groups acting as second messenger and neurontransmitter of signal transduction, and the enhanced protein metabolism to regulate the plasticity of synaptic structure for formation of memory, suggest that Acc may have evolved a better sense of smell than that of Aml. Our first proteome data is helpful as starting point for further analysis of neural activity in brain sub-area of honeybee and other insects.

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