Avaliação da expressão gênica diferencial e dos hidrocarbonetos cuticulares de rainhas, operárias, machos haplóides e diplóides de Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Borges, Andreia Arantes
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/1328
• topic: Expressão gênica; Hidrocarbonetos cuticulares; Machos diploides; Melipona quadrifasciata; Gene expression; Cuticular hydrocarbons; Diploid males; Melipona quadrifasciata; CNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::GENETICA::GENETICA ANIMAL

The present study had focused to address different aspects of gene expression and cuticular hydrocarbons composition of queens, workers, diploid and haploid males of Melipona quadrifasciata, as well as trying to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the process of differentiation of male. The profile of gene expression of ten caste-specific genes was evaluated comparatively among newly emerged and 5 day-old workers, queens, diploid and haploid males. In general, the abundance of transcripts of diploid males was similar to that of haploid males and workers than to queens for the two age groups analyzed. After five days of emergence there were significant increases in gene expression levels of queens and workers, while opposite results were observed in male. These differences may be related to differential longevity between males and females. Despite haploid and diploid males are not easily distinguished visually, differentially expressed genes between these two phenotypes were identified by the technique of RDA (Representational Difference Analysis). Overall, the ESTs sequenced from the haploid male RDA library showed similarity with sequences of Drosophila (32.5%), Apis (25.6%) and stingless bees (7%). In the diploid male library, the percentage of ESTs with similarity to Drosophila and Apis sequences were slightly higher, being 41.8% and 30.2%, respectively. Both subtracted libraries also presented considerable proportions of ESTs without significant match to sequences in the nr database (34.9% for the haploid and 28% for the diploid male libraries). Differential gene expression was confirmed by real time PCR for ten of seventeen selected genes. Comparative gene expression analysis on samples of males with five days of age showed changes in abundance of transcripts in the phase of sexual maturation and early migration of sperm from the testicles to the seminal vesicle. Males and females of M. quadrifasciata had different chemical cuticular signatures, and the chemical standard of haploid and diploid males are more similar to workers than those of queens, corroborating the morphological and behavioral similarities between males and workers. No compound was found exclusively in the cuticle of newly emerged diploid males, indicating the absence of a substance that activates the agressive behavior of workers when these males are detected in inbred colonies.