Abdelmawla Amal, Yang Chen, Li Xin, Li Mang, Li Chang Long, Liu Yi Bo, He Xu Jiang, Zeng Zhi Jiang
Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China.
Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt.
Front Physiol. 2023 Jan 26;14:1073625. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1073625. eCollection 2023.
The Asian honeybee () and the European honeybee () are reproductively isolated. Previous studies reported that exchanging the larval food between the two species, known as nutritional crossbreeding, resulted in obvious changes in morphology, physiology and behavior. This study explored the molecular mechanisms underlying the honeybee nutritional crossbreeding. This study used full nutritional crossbreeding technology to rear queens by feeding them with an royal jelly-based diet in an incubator. The body color and the expression of certain genes, microRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA among nutritional crossbred queens (NQ), and control queens (CQ) were compared. The biological functions of two target genes, and , were verified using RNA interference. Our results showed that the NQ's body color turned yellow compared to the black control queens. Whole transcriptome sequencing results showed that a total of 1484, 311, 92, and 169 DEGs, DElncRNAs, DEmiRNAs, and DEcircRNAs, respectively, were identified in NQ and CQ, in which seven DEGs were enriched for three key pathways (tryptophan, tyrosine, and dopamine) involved in melanin synthesis. Interestingly, eight DElncRNAs and three DEmiRNAs were enriched into the key pathways regulating the above key DEGs. No circRNAs were enriched into these key pathways. Knocking down two key genes ( and ) resulted in altered body color, suggesting that feeding NQ's an RNAi-based diet significantly downregulated the expression of and in 4-day-old larvae, which confirmed the function of key DEGs in the regulation of honeybee body color. These findings reveal that the larval diets from could change the body color of , perhaps by altering the expression of non-coding RNAs and related key genes. This study serves as a model of epigenetic regulation in insect body color induced by environmental factors.
亚洲蜜蜂（ ）和欧洲蜜蜂（ ）在生殖上是隔离的。先前的研究报道，在两个物种之间交换幼虫食物，即营养杂交，会导致形态、生理和行为上的明显变化。本研究探索了蜜蜂营养杂交背后的分子机制。本研究采用全营养杂交技术，在培养箱中用基于意大利蜜蜂蜂王浆的饲料饲养中华蜜蜂蜂王。比较了营养杂交中华蜜蜂蜂王（NQ）和对照意大利蜜蜂蜂王（CQ）的体色以及某些基因、微小RNA（miRNA）、长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）和环状RNA（circRNA）的表达。使用RNA干扰验证了两个靶基因 和 的生物学功能。我们的结果表明，与黑色的对照蜂王相比，NQ的体色变为黄色。全转录组测序结果显示，在NQ和CQ中分别鉴定出总共1484个、311个、92个和169个差异表达基因（DEG）、差异表达lncRNA、差异表达miRNA和差异表达circRNA，其中7个DEG富集在参与黑色素合成的三个关键途径（色氨酸、酪氨酸和多巴胺）中。有趣的是，8个差异表达lncRNA和3个差异表达miRNA富集到调节上述关键DEG的关键途径中。没有circRNA富集到这些关键途径中。敲低两个关键基因（ 和 ）导致体色改变，这表明给NQ喂食基于RNA干扰的饲料会显著下调4日龄幼虫中 和 的表达，这证实了关键DEG在调节蜜蜂体色中的功能。这些发现表明，意大利蜜蜂的幼虫饲料可能通过改变非编码RNA和相关关键基因的表达来改变中华蜜蜂的体色。本研究为环境因素诱导昆虫体色的表观遗传调控提供了一个模型。
