Apis cerana honeybees' hypopharyngeal glands DGE project. Apis cerana

We used gene expression analysis to examine whether queen rearing is performed by a specialized sub-caste of the nurse bees using a tag-based digital gene expression (DGE) method. From head gene expression profiles we obtained about 5.95 and 5.84 million clean tags from the nurses breeding queen larvae [NBQL] group and nurses breeding worker larvae [NBWL] group, respectively. And detected 673 differentially expressed genes between these two samples, with 387 genes up-regulated and 286 genes down-regulated in NBQL group compared to the NBWL group. From two biological replicates of hypopharyngeal gland gene expression profiles we obtained about 11.86 and 11.89 million clean tags from the NBQL group and NBWL group, respectively. And detected 158 differentially expressed genes between these two samples, with 18 genes up-regulated and 140 genes down-regulated in NBQL group compared to the NBWL group.