| Title: | Mechanisms of stable lipid loss in a social insect |
| Author(s): | Ament SA; Chan QW; Wheeler MM; Nixon SE; Johnson SP; Rodriguez-Zas SL; Foster LJ; Robinson GE; |
| Address: | "Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1477-9145 (Electronic) 0022-0949 (Print) 0022-0949 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Worker honey bees undergo a socially regulated, highly stable lipid loss as part of their behavioral maturation. We used large-scale transcriptomic and proteomic experiments, physiological experiments and RNA interference to explore the mechanistic basis for this lipid loss. Lipid loss was associated with thousands of gene expression changes in abdominal fat bodies. Many of these genes were also regulated in young bees by nutrition during an initial period of lipid gain. Surprisingly, in older bees, which is when maximum lipid loss occurs, diet played less of a role in regulating fat body gene expression for components of evolutionarily conserved nutrition-related endocrine systems involving insulin and juvenile hormone signaling. By contrast, fat body gene expression in older bees was regulated more strongly by evolutionarily novel regulatory factors, queen mandibular pheromone (a honey bee-specific social signal) and vitellogenin (a conserved yolk protein that has evolved novel, maturation-related functions in the bee), independent of nutrition. These results demonstrate that conserved molecular pathways can be manipulated to achieve stable lipid loss through evolutionarily novel regulatory processes" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bees/*genetics/*growth & development/metabolism Diet Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental Insect Proteins/*genetics/metabolism *Lipid Metabolism Pheromones/genetics/metabolism RNA Interference Transcriptome Vitellogenins/genetics/metabolism;neuroscience;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineAment, Seth A Chan, Queenie W Wheeler, Marsha M Nixon, Scott E Johnson, S Peir Rodriguez-Zas, Sandra L Foster, Leonard J Robinson, Gene E eng R01 DK082605/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ R21 DA027548/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ 1R01DK082605-01A1/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. England 2011/10/28 J Exp Biol. 2011 Nov 15; 214(Pt 22):3808-21. doi: 10.1242/jeb.060244" |
