1. Mblk‐1 regulates sugar responsiveness in honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) foragers
- Author
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Yuan Zhang, Liangbin Li, Qiang Li, Hongxia Zhao, Zachary Y. Huang, Fang Liu, and Lixian Wu
- Subjects
Sucrose ,Messenger RNA ,animal structures ,fungi ,Brain ,food and beverages ,Honey bee ,Bees ,Biology ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Cell biology ,Transcription (biology) ,Insect Science ,Mushroom bodies ,Gene expression ,behavior and behavior mechanisms ,Animals ,Sugars ,Agronomy and Crop Science ,Transcription factor ,Gene ,Mushroom Bodies ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Function (biology) ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Brain transcriptional regulatory network for behavior demonstrates that brain gene expression in the honey bee can be accurately predicted from the expression transcription factors (TFs), but roles for specific TFs are less understood. Mushroom bodies (MBs) are important for learning, memory and sensory integration in the honey bee brain. A transcription factor, Mblk-1, expressed preferentially in the large-type Kenyon cells of the honeybee MBs is predicted to be involved in brain function by regulating transcription of its target genes in honey bee. However its function and the mechanism of regulation in behavior of honey bee is still obscure. Here we show that Mblk-1 had significantly higher expression in the brains of forager bees relative to nurse bees. Mblk-1 was significantly inhibited in bees fed siRNA. In addition, inhibition of Mblk-1 decreased sucrose responsiveness in foragers. Finally, we determined that Mblk-1 regulated the mRNA of AmGR1. These findings suggest that Mblk-1 may target AmGR1 to regulate the sucrose responsiveness of foragers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
- Published
- 2021