Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100093 Beijing, China.
Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules Center, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China.
Cell Rep. 2021 Jan 5;34(1):108580. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108580.
Genetically identical female honeybee larvae with different diets develop into sterile workers or fertile queens. It remains unknown whether the reversible RNA N-methyladenosine (mA) mark functionally impact this "caste differentiation." Here, we profile the transcriptome-wide mA methylome of honeybee queen and worker larvae at three instar stages and discover that mA methylation dynamics are altered by differential feeding. Multiple methylome comparisons show an obvious increase in mA marks during larval development and reveal a negative correlation between gene expression and mA methylation. Notably, we find that worker larvae contain more hypermethylated mA peaks than do queen larvae, and many caste-differentiation-related transcripts are differentially methylated. Chemical suppression of mA methylation in worker larvae by 3-deazaadenosine (DAA) reduces overall mA methylation levels and triggers worker larvae to develop queen caste features. Thus, our study demonstrates that mA functionally impacts caste differentiation and larval development, yet it does not exclude potential contributions from other factors.
具有不同饮食的遗传相同的雌性蜜蜂幼虫发育为不育工蜂或可育蜂王。目前尚不清楚可逆的 RNA N6-甲基腺苷（m6A）标记是否对这种“级型分化”具有功能影响。在这里，我们在三个龄期阶段对蜂王和工蜂幼虫的转录组范围的 m6A 甲基化组进行了分析，发现 m6A 甲基化动态受不同喂养的影响而改变。多次甲基化组比较显示，m6A 标记在幼虫发育过程中明显增加，并显示基因表达与 m6A 甲基化之间呈负相关。值得注意的是，我们发现工蜂幼虫比蜂王幼虫含有更多的超甲基化 m6A 峰，并且许多与级型分化相关的转录物存在差异甲基化。通过 3-脱氮腺苷（DAA）在工蜂幼虫中化学抑制 m6A 甲基化会降低整体 m6A 甲基化水平，并促使工蜂幼虫发育成蜂王级型特征。因此，我们的研究表明 m6A 对级型分化和幼虫发育具有功能影响，但不能排除其他因素的潜在贡献。
