Colgan, Thomas J. and Carolan, James C. and Bridgett, Stephen J. and Sumner, Seirian and Blaxter, Mark L. and Brown, Mark J.F. (2011) Polyphenism in social insects: insights from a transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression in the life stages of the key pollinator, Bombus terrestris. BMC Genomics, 12 (623). pp. 1-20. ISSN 1471-2164

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Abstract

Background: Understanding polyphenism, the ability of a single genome to express multiple morphologically and behaviourally distinct phenotypes, is an important goal for evolutionary and developmental biology. Polyphenism has been key to the evolution of the Hymenoptera, and particularly the social Hymenoptera where the genome of a single species regulates distinct larval stages, sexual dimorphism and physical castes within the female sex. Transcriptomic analyses of social Hymenoptera will therefore provide unique insights into how changes in gene expression underlie such complexity. Here we describe gene expression in individual specimens of the pre-adult stages, sexes and castes of the key pollinator, the buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Results: cDNA was prepared from mRNA from five life cycle stages (one larva, one pupa, one male, one gyne and two workers) and a total of 1,610,742 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated using Roche 454 technology, substantially increasing the sequence data available for this important species. Overlapping ESTs were assembled into 36,354 B. terrestris putative transcripts, and functionally annotated. A preliminary assessment of differences in gene expression across non-replicated specimens from the pre-adult stages, castes and sexes was performed using R-STAT analysis. Individual samples from the life cycle stages of the bumblebee differed in the expression of a wide array of genes, including genes involved in amino acid storage, metabolism, immunity and olfaction. Conclusions: Detailed analyses of immune and olfaction gene expression across phenotypes demonstrated how transcriptomic analyses can inform our understanding of processes central to the biology of B. terrestris and the social Hymenoptera in general. For example, examination of immunity-related genes identified high conservation of important immunity pathway components across individual specimens from the life cycle stages while olfactory-related genes exhibited differential expression with a wider repertoire of gene expression within adults, especially sexuals, in comparison to immature stages. As there is an absence of replication across the samples, the results of this study are preliminary but provide a number of candidate genes which may be related to distinct phenotypic stage expression. This comprehensive transcriptome catalogue will provide an important gene discovery resource for directed programmes in ecology, evolution and conservation of a key pollinator.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2011 Colgan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-623
Keywords:	Polyphenism; social insects; transcriptome-wide analysis; gene expression; life stages; key pollinator; Bombus terrestris;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Biology
Item ID:	3784
Depositing User:	James Carolan
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2012 15:59
Journal or Publication Title:	BMC Genomics
Publisher:	Biomed Central
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenomics...
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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