Recipe for a busy bee: microRNAs in Honey Bee caste determination

Social caste determination in the honey bee is assumed to be determined by the dietary status of the young larvae and translated into physiological and epigenetic changes through nutrient-sensing pathways. We have employed Illumina/Solexa sequencing to examine the small RNA content in the bee larval...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one 2013-12, Vol.8 (12), p.e81661-e81661
Main Authors:	Guo, Xiangqian, Su, Songkun, Skogerboe, Geir, Dai, Shuanjin, Li, Wenfeng, Li, Zhiguo, Liu, Fang, Ni, Ruifeng, Guo, Yu, Chen, Shenglu, Zhang, Shaowu, Chen, Runsheng
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animal behavior Animal sciences Animals Apis mellifera Bees Bees - classification Bees - genetics Bees - growth & development Bioinformatics Biophysics Brain research Caste determination Diet Epigenesis, Genetic Epigenetic inheritance Epigenetics European honeybee Fatty Acids - chemistry Female Gene expression Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental Gene sequencing Genomes Honey Honeybee Insects Laboratories Larva - classification Larva - genetics Larva - growth & development Larvae Larval development Male MicroRNA MicroRNAs MicroRNAs - genetics MicroRNAs - metabolism miRNA Neurogenesis Physiological aspects Publishing industry Ribonucleic acid RNA Royal jelly Secretions
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Social caste determination in the honey bee is assumed to be determined by the dietary status of the young larvae and translated into physiological and epigenetic changes through nutrient-sensing pathways. We have employed Illumina/Solexa sequencing to examine the small RNA content in the bee larval food, and show that worker jelly is enriched in miRNA complexity and abundance relative to royal jelly. The miRNA levels in worker jelly were 7-215 fold higher than in royal jelly, and both jellies showed dynamic changes in miRNA content during the 4(th) to 6(th) day of larval development. Adding specific miRNAs to royal jelly elicited significant changes in queen larval mRNA expression and morphological characters of the emerging adult queen bee. We propose that miRNAs in the nurse bee secretions constitute an additional element in the regulatory control of caste determination in the honey bee.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203