Chen Xiao, Fu Jinluan
Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding & Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Insects. 2021 Apr 14;12(4):351. doi: 10.3390/insects12040351.
Honeybees () are important pollinators and are commonly used for honey production. The oviposition behavior in honeybees is complex and errors in oviposition could affect the development of the bee colony. Recent studies reported that RNA-RNA cross-talk played a critical role in several biological processes, including reproduction. Ecdysone receptor (EcR) and miR-14 were previously reported to play important roles in egg-laying. Moreover, EcR was predicted to be the target gene of miR-14 and may form miR-14-EcR cross-talk. In this study, knocking down and overexpression of miR-14 and EcR in queen model were implemented. The effect of RNA expression of miR-14 and EcR on the number of eggs laid by honeybee queens were analyzed. Further, luciferase assay was used to confirm the target relation between miR-14 and 3'UTR of EcR. The results showed that the expression of miR-14 and EcR was associated with the number of eggs laid by queens. In specific, inhibition of miR-14 expression enhanced the number of eggs laid, while overexpression of EcR enhanced the number of eggs laid. Lastly, we determined that miR-14 directly targets the mRNA of EcR. These findings suggest that the cross-talk of miR-14-EcR plays an important role in the number of eggs laid by honeybee queens.
蜜蜂是重要的传粉者，常用于蜂蜜生产。蜜蜂的产卵行为复杂，产卵错误可能影响蜂群的发展。最近的研究报道，RNA-RNA相互作用在包括生殖在内的多个生物学过程中起关键作用。蜕皮激素受体（EcR）和miR-14先前被报道在产卵中起重要作用。此外，EcR被预测为miR-14的靶基因，可能形成miR-14-EcR相互作用。在本研究中，在蜂王模型中进行了miR-14和EcR的敲低和过表达。分析了miR-14和EcR的RNA表达对蜂王产卵数量的影响。此外，使用荧光素酶测定法来确认miR-14与EcR的3'UTR之间的靶标关系。结果表明，miR-14和EcR的表达与蜂王的产卵数量相关。具体而言，抑制miR-14表达增加了产卵数量，而过表达EcR也增加了产卵数量。最后，我们确定miR-14直接靶向EcR的mRNA。这些发现表明，miR-14-EcR相互作用在蜂王的产卵数量中起重要作用。
