Corona M, Estrada E, Zurita M
Departamento de Genética y Fisiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, APDO-Postal 510-3, Cuernavaca Morelos 62250, México.
J Exp Biol. 1999 Apr;202(Pt 8):929-38. doi: 10.1242/jeb.202.8.929.
The nourishment received by female honeybee larvae determines their differentiation into queens or workers. In this study, we report the first molecular analysis of differences that occur between queens and workers during the caste-determination process. RNA-differential display experiments identified a clone that encodes for a gene that is homologous to the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial translation initiation factor (AmIF-2mt). Semi-quantitative analysis by reverse transcriptase/polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) throughout honeybee development detected a higher level of expression of this gene in queen larvae than in worker larvae. Analysis of two other genes encoding mitochondrial proteins, cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COX-1; mitochondrial-encoded) and cytochrome c (cyt c; nuclear-encoded) also showed differential expression of these two genes between queens and workers. In particular, the cyt c transcript is more abundant in queen larvae and throughout the metamorphosis of the queen. These results indicate that the higher respiratory rate previously documented in queen larvae is accomplished through a higher level of expression of both nuclear- and mitochondrial-encoded genes for mitochondrial proteins.
雌性蜜蜂幼虫所获得的营养决定了它们分化为蜂后或工蜂。在本研究中，我们首次报告了在级型决定过程中蜂后和工蜂之间差异的分子分析。RNA差异显示实验鉴定出一个克隆，它编码一个与核编码的线粒体翻译起始因子（AmIF-2mt）同源的基因。通过逆转录酶/聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）对蜜蜂整个发育过程进行的半定量分析检测到，该基因在蜂后幼虫中的表达水平高于工蜂幼虫。对另外两个编码线粒体蛋白的基因，即细胞色素氧化酶亚基1（COX-1；线粒体编码）和细胞色素c（cyt c；核编码）的分析也显示，这两个基因在蜂后和工蜂之间存在差异表达。特别是，cyt c转录本在蜂后幼虫中以及在蜂后的整个变态过程中更为丰富。这些结果表明，先前记录的蜂后幼虫较高的呼吸速率是通过线粒体蛋白的核编码基因和线粒体编码基因的更高表达水平来实现的。
