title: Honey bee protein atlas at organ-level resolution.
abstract: Genome sequencing has provided us with gene lists but cannot tell us where and how their encoded products work together to support life. Complex organisms rely on differential expression of subsets of genes/proteins in organs and tissues, and, in concert, evolved to their present state as they function together to improve an organism's overall reproductive fitness. Proteomics studies of individual organs help us understand their basic functions, but this reductionist approach misses the larger context of the whole organism. This problem could be circumvented if all the organs in an organism were comprehensively studied by the same methodology and analyzed together. Using honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) as a model system, we report here an initial whole proteome of a complex organism, measuring 29 different organ/tissue types among the three honey bee castes: queen, drone, and worker. The data reveal that, e.g., workers have a heightened capacity to deal with environmental toxins and queens have a far more robust pheromone detection system than their nestmates. The data also suggest that workers altruistically sacrifice not only their own reproductive capacity but also their immune potential in favor of their queen. Finally, organ-level resolution of protein expression offers a systematic insight into how organs may have developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Centre for High-Throughput Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4.
authors.forename: Queenie W T
authors.initials: QW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Man Yi
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Logan
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higo
authors.forename: Leonard J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*; D040901:Proteomics; D012919:Social Behavior
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D010675:Pheromones; D020543:Proteome