lncRNA profile of Apis mellifera and its possible role in behavioural transition from nurses to foragers

BMC Genomics

Deqian Wang¹  Jie Dong¹  Zachary Y. Huang²  Tengfei Shi³  Lei Qi³  Xin Su³  Fang Liu³ 

[1]0000 0000 9883 3553, grid.410744.2, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 310021, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China

[2]0000 0001 2150 1785, grid.17088.36, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, 48824, East Lansing, MI, USA

[3]0000 0004 1760 4804, grid.411389.6, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, 230000, Hefei, Anhui, China

关键词: lncRNA;    mRNA;    Behavioural transition;    Foragers;    Nurses;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12864-019-5664-7

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe behavioural transition from nurses to foragers in honey bees is known to be affected by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including colony demography, hormone levels, brain chemistry and structure, and gene expression in the brain. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this behavioural transition of honey bees is still obscure.ResultsThrough RNA sequencing, we performed a comprehensive analysis of lncRNAs and mRNAs in honey bee nurses and foragers. Nurses and foragers from both typical colonies and single-cohort colonies were used to prepare six libraries to generate 49 to 100 million clear reads per sample. We obtained 6863 novel lncRNAs, 1480 differentially expressed lncRNAs between nurses and foragers, and 9308 mRNAs. Consistent with previous studies, lncRNAs showed features distinct from mRNAs, such as shorter lengths, lower exon numbers, and lower expression levels compared to mRNAs. Bioinformatic analysis showed that differentially expressed genes were mostly involved in the regulation of sensory-related events, such as olfactory receptor activity and odorant binding, and enriched Wnt and FoxO signaling pathways. Moreover, we found that lncRNAs TCONS_00356023, TCONS_00357367, TCONS_00159909 and mRNAs dop1, Kr-h1 and HR38 may play important roles in behavioural transition in honey bees.ConclusionThis study characterized the expression profile of lncRNAs in nurses and foragers and provided a framework for further study of the role of lncRNAs in honey bee behavioural transition.

【 授权许可】

CC BY