RNA-seq of Apis mellifera: adult brain tissue
The total RNA was extracted from the brain pools of nurse bees A. mellifera using the TRIzol reagent protocol according to the manufacturer's instructions (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, USA). RNA concentrations were quantified in each sample using a QubitTM 2.0 fluorometer (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, USA). The levels of degradation of RNA were assessed by a 1% agarose gel. The cDNA libraries were constructed with 200 ng of total RNA using the SureSelect Strand Specific RNA Library Preparation Kit (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, USA), following the manufacturer's instructions. The products from the library were then sequenced using an Illumina Nextseq platform (Illumina, San Diego, USA) in a single-bore run of 150 bp.