Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 10093, China.
College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 16;8(1):822. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-17338-6.
The Asian honeybee Apis cerana is one of two bee species that have been commercially kept with immense economic value. Here we present the analysis of genomic sequence and transcriptomic exploration for A. cerana as well as the comparative genomic analysis of the Asian honeybee and the European honeybee A. mellifera. The genome and RNA-seq data yield new insights into the behavioral and physiological resistance to the parasitic mite Varroa the evolution of antimicrobial peptides, and the genetic basis for labor division in A. cerana. Comparison of genes between the two sister species revealed genes specific to A. cerana, 54.5% of which have no homology to any known proteins. The observation that A. cerana displayed significantly more vigilant grooming behaviors to the presence of Varroa than A. mellifera in conjunction with gene expression analysis suggests that parasite-defensive grooming in A. cerana is likely triggered not only by exogenous stimuli through visual and olfactory detection of the parasite, but also by genetically endogenous processes that periodically activates a bout of grooming to remove the ectoparasite. This information provides a valuable platform to facilitate the traits unique to A. cerana as well as those shared with other social bees for health improvement.
亚洲蜜蜂（Apis cerana）是两种已被商业化养殖的蜜蜂物种之一，具有巨大的经济价值。在这里，我们对亚洲蜜蜂的基因组序列和转录组进行了分析，以及对亚洲蜜蜂和欧洲蜜蜂（A. mellifera）的比较基因组分析。基因组和 RNA-seq 数据为亚洲蜜蜂对寄生螨瓦螨（Varroa）的行为和生理抗性、抗菌肽的进化以及 A. cerana 劳动分工的遗传基础提供了新的见解。对两个姐妹物种的基因进行比较，发现了亚洲蜜蜂特有的基因，其中 54.5%的基因与任何已知蛋白都没有同源性。亚洲蜜蜂比欧洲蜜蜂对瓦螨的存在表现出明显更多的警惕性梳理行为，同时结合基因表达分析表明，亚洲蜜蜂对寄生虫的防御性梳理行为可能不仅是由通过视觉和嗅觉对外来刺激的检测引发的，还可能是由遗传内源性过程周期性地引发一阵梳理行为以去除外寄生虫。这些信息为促进亚洲蜜蜂特有的性状以及与其他社会性蜜蜂共有的性状的改良提供了一个有价值的平台。
