microRNA regulates the proliferation of Nosema ceranae in Apis cerana

The infected honeybees were divided into three groups and separately fed with sugar water (infection group), sugar water containing 20 ug/mL miRNA inhibitor (miRNA inhibitor group), and sugar water containing 20 ug/mL non-matching (scrambled) miRNA (miRNA-scramble group), respectively. We also conducted a comparative transcriptomic investigation of A. cerana and N. ceranae genes using RNA-seq from the guts of infected A. cerana workers of each group after seven-day post inoculation (dpi), focused on differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with miRNA JL-5 target genes.