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Gene expression profiles underlying alternative caste phenotypes in a highly eusocial bee, Melipona quadrifasciata
Author(s) -
Judice C. C.,
Carazzole M. F.,
Festa F.,
Sogayar M. C.,
Hartfelder K.,
Pereira G. A. G.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2005.00605.x
Subject(s) - biology , eusociality , polyphenism , gene , stingless bee , expressed sequence tag , juvenile hormone , honey bee , phenotype , genetics , gene expression , gene expression profiling , function (biology) , evolutionary biology , insect , apidae , zoology , hymenoptera , phenotypic plasticity , ecology
Abstract To evaluate caste‐biased gene expression in Melipona quadrifasciata , a stingless bee, we generated 1278 ESTs using Representational Difference Analysis. Most annotated sequences were similar to honey bee genes of unknown function. Only few queen‐biased sequences had their putative function assigned by sequence comparison, contrasting with the worker‐biased ESTs. The expression of six annotated genes connected to caste specificity was validated by real time PCR. Interestingly, queens that were developmentally induced by treatment with a juvenile hormone analogue displayed an expression profile clearly different from natural queens for this set of genes. In summary, this study represents an important first step in applying a comparative genomic approach to queen/worker polyphenism in the bee.