Exploring complex pheromone biosynthetic processes in the bumblebee male labial gland by RNA sequencing
Language English Country England, Great Britain Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PubMed
26945888
DOI
10.1111/imb.12221
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Keywords
- Bombus terrestris, RNA-seq, apoptosis, labial gland, marking pheromone biosynthesis, transcriptome,
- MeSH
- Aldehyde Oxidoreductases metabolism MeSH
- Apoptosis MeSH
- Fatty Acid Desaturases metabolism MeSH
- Pheromones biosynthesis MeSH
- Hydrolysis MeSH
- Fatty Acids biosynthesis MeSH
- Lipid Metabolism * MeSH
- Molecular Sequence Data MeSH
- Polymerase Chain Reaction MeSH
- Amino Acid Sequence MeSH
- Sequence Analysis, RNA MeSH
- Terpenes metabolism MeSH
- Transcriptome MeSH
- Fat Body metabolism MeSH
- Bees metabolism MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Male MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Aldehyde Oxidoreductases MeSH
- Fatty Acid Desaturases MeSH
- fatty acid reductase MeSH Browser
- Pheromones MeSH
- Fatty Acids MeSH
- Terpenes MeSH
Male marking pheromones (MPs) are used by the majority of bumblebee species (Hymenoptera: Apidae), including a commercially important greenhouse pollinator, the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), to attract conspecific females. MP biosynthetic processes in the cephalic part of the bumblebee male labial gland (LG) are of extraordinary complexity, involving enzymes of fatty acid and isoprenoid biosynthesis, which jointly produce more than 50 compounds. We employed a differential transcriptomic approach to identify candidate genes involved in MP biosynthesis by sequencing Bombus terrestris LG and fat body (FB) transcriptomes. We identified 12 454 abundantly expressed gene products (reads per kilobase of exon model per million mapped reads value > 1) that had significant hits in the GenBank nonredundant database. Of these, 876 were upregulated in the LG (> 4-fold difference). We identified more than 140 candidate genes potentially involved in MP biosynthesis, including esterases, fatty acid reductases, lipases, enzymes involved in limited fatty acid chain shortening, neuropeptide receptors and enzymes involved in biosynthesis of triacylglycerols, isoprenoids and fatty acids. For selected candidates, we confirmed their abundant expression in LG using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR). Our study shows that the Bombus terrestris LG transcriptome reflects both fatty acid and isoprenoid MP biosynthetic processes and identifies rational gene targets for future studies to disentangle the molecular basis of MP biosynthesis. Additionally, LG and FB transcriptomes enrich the available transcriptomic resources for Bombus terrestris.
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