Gene expression profiles underlying alternative caste phenotypes in a highly eusocial bee, Melipona quadrifasciata.
To evaluate caste-biased gene expression in Melipona quadrifasciata, a stingless bee, we generated 1278 ESTs using Representational Difference Analysis. Most annotated sequences were similar to honey bee genes of unknown function. Only few queen-biased sequences had their putative function assigned by sequence comparison, contrasting with the worker-biased ESTs. The expression of six annotated genes connected to caste specificity was validated by real time PCR. Interestingly, queens that were developmentally induced by treatment with a juvenile hormone analogue displayed an expression profile clearly different from natural queens for this set of genes. In summary, this study represents an important first step in applying a comparative genomic approach to queen/worker polyphenism in the bee.
Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas-Campinas, Brazil.
C C
CC
Judice
M F
MF
Carazzole
F
F
Festa
M C
MC
Sogayar
K
K
Hartfelder
G A G
GA
Pereira
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015723:Gene Library; D007605:Juvenile Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012930:Social Dominance
D007605:Juvenile Hormones