Differential Expressions
of Nuclear Proteomes between
Honeybee (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) Queen and Worker Larvae:
A Deep Insight into Caste Pathway Decisions
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Abstract
Honeybees (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) possess
individuals
(castes) in their colonies, to which specific tasks are allocated.
Owing to a difference in nutrition, the young female larvae develop
into either a fertile queen or a sterile worker. Despite a series
of investigations on the underlying mechanisms of honeybee caste polyphenism,
information on proteins and enzymes involved in DNA and RNA regulation
in the nucleus is still missing. The techniques of nuclear protein
enrichment, two-dimensional electrophoresis, mass spectrometry and
bioinformatics were applied to understand the nuclear proteome changes
in response to changes in environmental settings (nutrition and time)
during the early developmental stages at the third (72 h), fourth
(96 h), and fifth (120 h) instars of the two caste intended larvae.
A total of 120 differentially expressed nuclear proteins were identified
in both caste intended larvae during these developmental stages. The
third, fourth and fifth instars of queen prospective larvae expressed
69%, 84%, and 68% of the proteins that had altered expression, respectively.
Particularly, the prospective queen larvae up-regulated most of the
proteins with nuclear functions. In general, this changing nuclear
proteome of the two caste intended larvae over the three developmental
stages suggests variations in DNA and RNA regulating proteins and
enzymes. These variations of proteins and enzymes involved in DNA
and RNA regulation in response to differential nutrition between the
two caste intended larvae lead the two caste larvae to pursue different
developmental trajectories. Hence, this first data set of the nuclear
proteome helps us to explore the innermost biological makings of queen
and worker bee castes as early as before the 72 h (3rd instar). Also,
it provides new insights into the honeybee’s polymorphism at
nuclear proteome level and paves new ways to understand mechanisms
of caste decision in other eusocial insects