<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a social insect characterized by caste differentiation in which the queen bee and worker bees display marked differences in morphology, behavior, reproduction, and longevity despite their identical genomes. The main causative factor in caste differentiation is the food fed to queen larvae, termed royal jelly (RJ). Alternative splicing (AS) is an important RNA-mediated post-transcriptional process in eukaryotes. Here we report AS changes in A. mellifera after being fed either A. mellifera RJ or A. cerana RJ. The results demonstrated that the RJ type affected 4 types of AS in adult A. mellifera: exon skipping, intron retention, alternative 5’ splice sites, and alternative 3’splice sites. After feeding with A. cerana RJ, AS occurred in many genes in adult A. mellifera that encode proteins involved in development, growth, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and substance metabolism. This study provides the first evidence that heterospecific RJ can influence the AS of many genes related to honey bee development and growth.</p></abstract>

The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a social insect characterized by caste differentiation in which the queen bee and worker bees display marked differences in morphology, behavior, reproduction, and longevity despite their identical genomes. The main causative factor in caste differentiation is the food fed to queen larvae, termed royal jelly (RJ). Alternative splicing (AS) is an important RNA-mediated post-transcriptional process in eukaryotes. Here we report AS changes in A. mellifera after being fed either A. mellifera RJ or A. cerana RJ. The results demonstrated that the RJ type affected 4 types of AS in adult A. mellifera: exon skipping, intron retention, alternative 5’ splice sites, and alternative 3’splice sites. After feeding with A. cerana RJ, AS occurred in many genes in adult A. mellifera that encode proteins involved in development, growth, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and substance metabolism. This study provides the first evidence that heterospecific RJ can influence the AS of many genes related to honey bee development and growth.

Changes in Alternative Splicing in Apis Mellifera Bees Fed Apis Cerana Royal Jelly

Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, P.R. China

Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA

Journal of Apicultural Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a social insect characterized by caste differentiation in which the queen bee and worker bees display marked...

Changes in Alternative Splicing in Apis Mellifera Bees Fed Apis Cerana Royal Jelly

Published Online: Dec 11, 2014

Page range: 25 - 31

Received: Oct 09, 2013

Accepted: Jul 03, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2014-0019

Keywords
alternative splicing, honey bee, royal jelly, tricarboxylic acid cycle

© by Zhi Jiang Zeng

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Changes in Alternative Splicing in Apis Mellifera Bees Fed Apis Cerana Royal Jelly

Published Online: Dec 11, 2014

Page range: 25 - 31

Received: Oct 09, 2013

Accepted: Jul 03, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2014-0019

Keywordsalternative splicing, honey bee, royal jelly, tricarboxylic acid cycle

© by Zhi Jiang Zeng

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
alternative splicing, honey bee, royal jelly, tricarboxylic acid cycle