The trophocytes and oenocytes of worker and queen honey bees (Apis mellifera) exhibit distinct age-associated transcriptome profiles

Cheng Yen Lu, Yu Ting Weng, Bertrand Tan, Chin Yuan Hsu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite the identical genomic context, trophocytes and oenocytes in worker bees exhibit aging-related phenotypes, in contrast to the longevity phenotypes in queen bees. To explore this phenomenon at the molecular level, we evaluated the age-associated transcriptomes of trophocytes and oenocytes in worker bees and queen bees using high-throughput RNA-sequencing technology (RNA-seq). The results showed that (i) while gene expression profiles were different between worker and queen bees, they remained similar between young and old counterparts; (ii) worker bees express a high proportion of low-abundance genes, whereas queen bee transcriptomes display a high proportion of moderate-expression genes; (iii) genes were upregulated to a greater extent in queen bees vs. worker bees; and (iv) distinct aging-related and longevity-related candidate genes were found in worker and queen bees. These results provide new insights into the cellular aging and longevity of trophocytes and oenocytes in honey bees. Identification of aging-associated biomarker genes also constitutes a basis for translational research of aging in higher organisms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1863-1875
Number of pages13
JournalGeroScience
Volume43
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 08 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, American Aging Association.

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Honey bee
  • Longevity
  • Next-generation sequencing
  • Transcriptome

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