Kiya T, Itoh Y, Kubo T
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.
Insect Mol Biol. 2008 Feb;17(1):53-60. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2008.00775.x.
The transcription factor FoxP2 is related to acoustic communication in vertebrates and, although widely expressed in various tissues, its mutations cause a speech disorder in humans and disrupt vocalization in mice. In honeybee colonies, workers transmit information about a food location using 'dance communication', which is a form of acoustic communication. We identified a honeybee FoxP2-homologue, AmFoxP, and investigated its expression in the honeybee brain to elucidate its possible role in dance communication. The relative abundance of AmFoxP mRNA in the worker brain increased during the first 4 days of adult life. In situ hybridization revealed AmFoxP expression around the optic lobes, central complex, dorsal lobes, and protocerebral lobes, which was not dependent on the caste or division of labour.
转录因子FoxP2与脊椎动物的声学通讯有关，尽管它在各种组织中广泛表达，但其突变会导致人类出现言语障碍，并破坏小鼠的发声。在蜂群中，工蜂通过“舞蹈通讯”传递有关食物位置的信息，这是一种声学通讯形式。我们鉴定出一种蜜蜂FoxP2同源物AmFoxP，并研究了它在蜜蜂大脑中的表达，以阐明其在舞蹈通讯中可能发挥的作用。成年工蜂大脑中AmFoxP mRNA的相对丰度在成年后的前4天增加。原位杂交显示，AmFoxP在视叶、中央复合体、背叶和原脑叶周围表达，这与蜜蜂的等级或分工无关。
