Ovary activation of worker honey beefs Apis mellifera L. and identification of genes involved

Abstract

In an effort to uncover genes associated with ovary activation in honey bee workers, northern blot hybridization and quantitative real-time PCR were used to examine differential expression of the candidate genes in the workers with and without ovary development. From northern blot hybridization, the expression of vitellogenin and transferrin genes showed significantly different between wild-type workers and ovary activated anarchist workers. These two genes had more expressed in the abdomen of anarchist workers while they were less expression in the head part of those workers compared with wild-type workers. The quantitative real-time PCR was used to confirm the results and we found that vitellogenin was up-regulated about 4-fold in the abdomen of ovary activated anarchist workers when compared with ovary non-activated wild-type workers. Moreover, the honey bee workers that had ovary activation were constructed to use as the samples for examining the genes that regulate or involve in the network of ovary activation. Carbon dioxide and pheromone were the important keys for constructing these samples. Carbon dioxide affected the ovary retardation in the honey bee workers and also pheromone did the same effect. Vitellogenin and transferrin genes did show significantly differences in the abdominal tissue and head tissue part following the CO₂ narcosis. These two genes were up-regulated about 4-fold in the abdomen of ovary activated workers. In contrast, they were down-regulated about 3-fold in the head of those workers. These confirmed the previous results from northern blot analysis in the case of ovary activation. These vitellogenin and transferrin were up-regulated, about 14-fold and 9-fold respectively, in the abdomen of ovary activated queenless workers relative to ovary non-activated queenright workers. Moreover, gene encoding phosphoinositolglycan-peptide and tyramine receptor seem to be up-regulated in the abdomen of ovary activated queenless workers too.