Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory for Bee Genetics and Breeding, Jilin Provincial Institute of Apicultural Sciences, Jilin Province, 132108 People's Republic of China.
Sci Adv. 2020 Dec 18;6(51). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abd3590. Print 2020 Dec.
Animals with recent shared ancestry frequently adapt in parallel to new but similar habitats, a process often underlined by repeated selection of the same genes. Yet, in contrast, few examples have demonstrated the significance of gene reuse in colonization of multiple disparate habitats. By analyzing 343 genomes of the widespread Asian honeybee, , we showed that multiple peripheral subspecies radiated from a central ancestral population and adapted independently to diverse habitats. We found strong evidence of gene reuse in the Leucokinin receptor (Lkr), which was repeatedly selected in almost all peripheral subspecies. Differential expression and RNA interference knockdown revealed the role of Lkr in influencing foraging labor division, suggesting that Lkr facilitates collective tendency for pollen/nectar collection as an adaptation to floral changes. Our results suggest that honeybees may accommodate diverse floral shifts during rapid radiation through fine-tuning individual foraging tendency, a seemingly complex process accomplished by gene reuse.
具有近期共同进化史的动物经常会对新的但相似的栖息地进行平行适应，这一过程通常是通过对相同基因的反复选择来强调的。然而，相比之下，很少有例子表明基因重复利用在多个不同栖息地的殖民化过程中的重要性。通过分析 343 个广泛分布的亚洲蜜蜂的基因组，我们表明，多个外围亚种从一个中心祖先群体辐射出来，并独立适应不同的栖息地。我们在 Leucokinin 受体 (Lkr) 中发现了基因重复利用的强烈证据，几乎所有的外围亚种都对 Lkr 进行了反复选择。差异表达和 RNA 干扰敲低揭示了 Lkr 在影响觅食劳动分工中的作用，表明 Lkr 有助于花粉/花蜜收集的集体倾向，这是对花卉变化的一种适应。我们的研究结果表明，蜜蜂可能通过微调个体觅食倾向来适应快速辐射过程中的各种花卉变化，这是一个通过基因重复利用完成的看似复杂的过程。
