Zhang Wenxin, Wang Liangliang, Zhao Yinjiao, Wang Yufei, Chen Chaoyang, Hu Yu, Zhu Yuanxiang, Sun Hao, Cheng Ying, Sun Qinmiao, Zhang Jian, Chen Dahua
Institute of Biomedical Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China.
School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China.
iScience. 2022 Jun 18;25(7):104643. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104643. eCollection 2022 Jul 15.
The honeybee () is a well-known eusocial insect. In honeybee colonies, thousands of sterile workers, including nurse and forager bees, perform various tasks within or outside the hive, respectively. The queen is the only fertile female and is responsible for reproduction. The queen and workers share similar genomes but occupy different caste statuses. We established single-cell transcriptomic atlases of brains from queens and worker subcastes and identified five major cell groups: Kenyon, optic lobe, olfactory projection, glial, and hemocyte cells. By dividing Kenyon and glial cells into multiple subtypes based on credible markers, we observed that vitellogenin () was highly expressed in specific glial-cell subtypes in brains of queens. Knockdown of at the early larval stage significantly suppressed the development into adult queens. We demonstrate expression as a "molecular signature" for the queen caste and suggest involvement of in regulating caste differentiation.
蜜蜂（ ）是一种广为人知的群居昆虫。在蜜蜂群体中，数千只不育的工蜂，包括保育蜂和采蜜蜂，分别在蜂巢内或蜂巢外执行各种任务。蜂后是唯一可育的雌性，负责繁殖。蜂后和工蜂拥有相似的基因组，但处于不同的等级地位。我们建立了蜂后和工蜂亚等级大脑的单细胞转录组图谱，并鉴定出五个主要细胞群：肯扬细胞、视叶细胞、嗅觉投射细胞、神经胶质细胞和血细胞。通过基于可靠标记将肯扬细胞和神经胶质细胞分为多个亚型，我们观察到卵黄原蛋白（ ）在蜂后大脑中的特定神经胶质细胞亚型中高度表达。在幼虫早期阶段敲低 会显著抑制其发育成为成年蜂后。我们证明 的表达是蜂后等级的“分子标志”，并表明 参与调节等级分化。
