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ToolsPrince, David C., Wirén, Anders, Huggins, Timothy J., Collins, David H., Dalmay, Tamas and Bourke, Andrew F. G. (2024) Molecular basis of eusocial complexity: The case of worker reproductivity in bees. Genome Biology and Evolution, 16 (12). ISSN 1759-6653
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Abstract
In eusocial insects, the molecular basis of worker reproductivity, including how it changes with eusocial complexity, remains relatively poorly understood. To address this, we used mRNA-seq to isolate genes differentially expressed between ovary-active and ovary-inactive workers in the intermediately eusocial bumblebee Bombus terrestris. By comparisons with data from the advanced eusocial honeybee Apis mellifera, which shows reduced worker reproductivity, we characterized gene expression differences associated with change in worker reproductivity as a function of eusocial complexity. By comparisons with genes associated with queen-worker caste development in B. terrestris larvae, we tested the behavioral–morphological caste homology hypothesis, which proposes co-option of genes influencing reproductive division of labor in adults in morphological caste evolution. We conducted comparisons having isolated genes expressed in B. terrestris worker-laid eggs to remove the potential confound caused by gene expression in eggs. Gene expression differences between the B. terrestris worker phenotypes were mainly in fat body and ovary, not brain. Many genes (86%) more highly expressed in ovary of ovary-active workers were also expressed in worker-laid eggs, confirming egg-expressed genes were potentially confounding. Comparisons across B. terrestris and A. mellifera, and with B. terrestris larvae, returned significant percentage overlaps in differentially expressed genes and/or enriched Gene Ontology terms, suggesting conserved gene functions underpin worker reproductivity as it declines with increasing eusocial complexity and providing support for the behavioral–morphological caste homology hypothesis. Therefore, within bees, both a degree of conserved gene use and gene co-option appear to underlie the molecular basis of worker reproductivity and morphological caste evolution.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data Availability Statement: All sequencing data generated by this article have been deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information's (NCBI's) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/ and are available under series accession number GSE93274. The custom code used for the analyses is available at https://github.com/davidprince84/Prince-et-al_NE-L006758-1_exp1a_mRNA-seq_scripts. Funding information: This work was supported by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC grant reference number BB/M001482/1) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC research grant reference numbers NE/L006758/1, NE/R000875/1). Laboratory work (library preparation and sequencing) was supported and performed by the NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility (NBAF) at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Genomics). Edinburgh Genomics is partly supported through core grants from BBSRC (BB/T017864/1) and NERC (UKSBS PR18037). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | apis,bombus,evolution of eusociality,gene expression,mrna-seq,worker reproduction,medicine(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Plant Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jan 2025 01:04 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jan 2025 13:24 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98063 |
| DOI: |
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