Transcriptome-wide analysis of antennal chemoreseptors of bumble bees at different life stages uncovered the core regulatory elements of olfaction
The high-quality RNA samples were used for both mRNA/lncRNA and small RNA library preparation using MGIEasy RNA Library Prep Set and Small RNA Library Prep Kit, respectively. In brief, for small RNA library preparation, it was carried out using the following steps: (i) size selection (18-40 bases in length) and gel purification of small RNAs from total RNA, (ii)  the ligation of an adenylated 3' and 5 adapter oligonucleotides to the small RNA fragments, respectively, (iii) reverse transcript (RT) reaction and DNA nanoballs (DNBs) generation by rolling circle replication, and (iv) DNA nanoball sequencing of libraries on the BGISEQ-500 (MGI, Shenzhen, China) platform with 50-bp single-end reads. Each profiling experiment consisted of three biological replicates per group.