Mechanisms of stable lipid loss in a social insect

93Citations
Citations of this article
151Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Worker honey bees undergo a socially regulated, highly stable lipid loss as part of their behavioral maturation. We used largescale 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, maturationrelated 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. © 2011. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Ament, S. A., Chan, Q. W., Wheeler, M. M., Nixon, S. E., Johnson, S. P., Rodriguez-Zas, S. L., … Robinson, G. E. (2011). Mechanisms of stable lipid loss in a social insect. Journal of Experimental Biology, 214(22), 3808–3821. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.060244

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free