Expressão do gene aqp-4-like no trato digestório de operárias de Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Débora Linhares Lino
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/2378
• topic: Abelha; Aquaporina; Proteínas; Fisiologia; Bee; Aquaporin; Proteins; Physiology; CNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::BIOLOGIA GERAL

The age polyethism of Apis mellifera workers is related to morphological and physiological changes in many systems, including the digestive system, and to diet change of the bees, younger workers consuming mainly pollen and older bees consuming honey. The aquaporins are membrane proteins that have been identified in different organs of the digestive tract of insects and are responsible for transmembrane transport of water. This study evaluated whether there are differences in the expression of aqp-4-like, a gene for aquaporin in A. mellifera bees between nurses and foragers workers. The Malpighian tubules, crop, midgut, ileum and rectum of workers with different tasks were used to perform qPCR. The results showed that in nurse bees aqp-4-like mRNA was greater expressed in Malpighian tubules and ileum, while in the forager the highest expression occurred in the crop and rectum. The midgut was the only organ that showed no difference in expression between nurses and foragers, but it was the organ with the highest expression of aqp-4-like compared to the Malpighian tubules. These data show that AQP-4-like is differentially expressed in various organs of the digestive tract of nurses and foragers workers due to its different diets and physiology. The differential expression of the gene is related to osmoregulation in the Malpighian tubules, ileum and rectum. Also, the dehydration of the food content in the crop and midgut by this aquaporin avoids the digestive enzymes dilution, ensuring the completion of digestion.