Phenotypic plasticity shapes genome architecture in the honeybee Apis mellifera (RNA-seq)

Female honeybees are specified as workers or queens based on diet during early development. Workers are essentially sterile with a reduced number of ovarioles and no spermatheca. In the presence of the queen (queen mandibular pheromone) and her brood, worker ovaries are kept in an inactive quiescent state. If the queen is removed, or lost, worker bees are able to sense this change in their environment and their ovaries undergo complete remodeling producing unfertilized haploid eggs that will produce male (drone bees). In this study we analyze gene expression in queen, worker, and laying worker ovaries using RNA-seq and explore differences in the chromatin landscape (focusing on H3K27me3). RNA-seq to measure gene expression in queen, queen right worker and actively laying worker ovaries

雌性蜜蜂在发育早期会根据饮食差异被分化为工蜂(workers)或蜂王(queens)。工蜂本质上为不育个体，其卵巢小管(ovarioles)数量减少且无受精囊(spermatheca)。当蜂群存在蜂王及其蜂王下颌信息素(queen mandibular pheromone)与子代蜂群时，工蜂的卵巢会维持在非活化的静止状态。若蜂王消失或被移除，工蜂可感知到环境中的这一变化，其卵巢会发生完全重塑，产出未受精的单倍体卵，这些卵将发育为雄性蜜蜂(雄蜂drone bees)。本研究采用RNA测序(RNA-seq)技术，分析蜂王、有王群工蜂(queen right worker)以及活跃产卵工蜂的卵巢组织中的基因表达情况，并探究其染色质景观(chromatin landscape)的差异，重点聚焦于H3K27me3修饰。