School of Life Sciences, Gibbet Hill Campus, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Mol Ecol. 2018 Feb;27(4):1036-1043. doi: 10.1111/mec.14495. Epub 2018 Feb 11.
Phenotypic plasticity is when one genome can produce more than one phenotype. The caste system found in many social insects is an important example of plasticity. Several studies have examined gene expression in social insect developmental and caste differences. Changes in gene expression, however, are not the only source of phenotypic plasticity. Here, we investigate the role of alternative splicing in the buff-tailed bumble bee Bombus terrestris. We found that 5,458 genes in B. terrestris (40%) express more than one isoform. Larvae have the lowest level of splicing events, followed by adults and then pupae. We found that when an isoform is expressed in a given caste in the larval stage, it tends to be expressed in all castes at the larval stage. The same is true at the pupal stage. However, we see more complicated interactions between the adult castes with reproductive females showing different isoform expression compared to nonreproductive females and male adults showing the most distinct patterns. We found 455 isoform switching genes, that is genes, where one developmental stage, sex or caste uses a specific isoform and another type uses a different isoform. Among genes displaying isoform switching are some involved in the ecdysteriod pathway, an important system in insect behaviour.
表型可塑性是指一个基因组可以产生多种表型。许多社会性昆虫中的等级制度就是可塑性的一个重要例子。有几项研究检查了社会性昆虫发育和等级差异中的基因表达。然而，基因表达的变化并不是表型可塑性的唯一来源。在这里，我们研究了在黄带地熊蜂 Bombus terrestris 中的选择性剪接的作用。我们发现 B. terrestris 中有 5458 个基因（占 40%）表达了不止一种异构体。幼虫的剪接事件最少，其次是成虫，然后是蛹。我们发现，当一个异构体在幼虫的某个等级中表达时，它往往在幼虫的所有等级中表达。在蛹期也是如此。然而，我们在成年期的不同等级之间看到了更为复杂的相互作用，有生殖能力的雌性与无生殖能力的雌性和雄性成虫的异构体表达不同，而雄性成虫的异构体表达则最为明显。我们发现了 455 个异构体切换基因，即一个发育阶段、性别或等级使用特定异构体，而另一个类型使用不同异构体的基因。在显示异构体切换的基因中，有一些涉及蜕皮激素途径，这是昆虫行为中的一个重要系统。
