A Secreted RNA Binding Protein Forms RNA- Stabilizing Granules in the Honeybee Royal Jelly (original) (raw)
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A Transmissible RNA Pathway in Honey Bees
Cell Reports
Highlights d Ingested dsRNA spreads via hemolymph and is secreted in worker and royal jellies d Functional dsRNA flows horizontally among honey bees by jelly consumption d Worker and royal jellies harbor differential natural ssRNA and dsRNA populations d Diverse pathogenic RNA fragments naturally occur in worker and royal jellies
Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Honeybee queens are generated on purpose by extensive feeding with a glandular secretion termed royal jelly. Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are the dominant proteinaceous component of royal jelly. One of them, MRJP1, was found to play a central role in honeybee queen development. Genes encoding MRJPs were reported to originate from a single originator, and several of them have evolved nutritive function. Phylogenetic analysis provides evidence that the same originator has multiplied independently in Nasonia and ant lineages. Here we show that bumblebees represent a transition species preserving a single-copy pre-multiplication stage of MRJP evolution. By exploring the single-copy BtRJPL gene, we found striking similarities with MRJPs of the honeybee such as gene structure and expression regulation. At the same time it turned out that BtRJPL does not fulfill criteria for functioning as a nutritive protein. Instead we found evidence that BtRJPL is involved in food digestion or mod...
2003
An expressed sequence tag (EST) library was established from the hypopharyngeal glands of Apis cerana. Sixty-six recombinant clones, possessing inserts >500 bp, were randomly selected and unidirectional sequenced. Fortytwo of these (63.6%) were identified as homologues of Major Royal Jelly Proteins families 1, 2, 3, and 4 of A. mellifera (AmMRJP) for which MRJP1 was the most abundant family. The open-reading frame of the MRJP1 homologue (AcMRJP1) was 1299 nucleotides that encoded 433 deduced amino acids with three predicted N-linked glycosylation sites. The AcMRJP1 sequence showed 93% and 90% homologies with nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of AmMRJP1, respectively. Two complete transcripts of apisimin, and one and two partial transcripts of α-glucosidase and glucose oxidase, were also isolated. In addition, the royal jelly proteins of A. cerana were purified and characterized using Q-Sepharose and Sephadex G-200 column chromatography. The native forms of protein peaks A1, A2, B1, and C1 were 115, 55, 50, and 300 kDa, respectively. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that A1 and C1 were dimeric and oligomeric forms of the 80 kDa and 50 kDa subunits, respectively. The ratio of the total protein quantities of A1 : A2 : B1 : C1 were 2.52 : 4.72 : 1 : 12.21. Further characterization of each protein, using N-terminal and internal peptide sequencing, revealed that the respective proteins were homologues of MRJP3, MRJP2, MRJP1, and MRJP1 of A. mellifera.
MRJP9, an ancient protein of the honeybee MRJP family with non-nutritional function
Journal of Apicultural Research, 2007
Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) form a subfamily within a larger Yellow/MRJP family of proteins. Whereas multiple Yellow-like proteins have been found in all insect genomes including honeybee, MRJPs seem to be restricted to honeybees. Eight MRJP proteins, termed MRJP1-8, have been characterized so far. We found that proteomic analyses of bee hypopharyngeal glands and venom sac identified proteolytic fragments of a protein, which might be a novel member of the MRJP family. Using this information and availability of honeybee genome, we cloned the corresponding cDNA and confirmed by sequencing that it encodes an uncharacterized MRJP9 protein. Interestingly, a cDNA coding for a relative of MRJP9 was found in paper wasp EST library. By phylogenetic analyses we show that MRJP9 is an ancient member of the MRJP family, which diverged prior to occurrence of nutritionally valuable nitrogen-rich repeat regions in MRJPs. Identification of MRJP9 in several bee organs, its comparatively low expression levels there, together with the existence of a MRJP-like protein in wasp indicate that it performs function(s) different from larval nutrition. A novel hypothesis on possible role of MRJP9 found in bee venom as a possible immunosensitizing factor contributing to allergy against royal jelly is discussed.
A family of major royal jelly proteins of the honeybee Apis mellifera L
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences CMLS, 1998
The characterization of major proteins of royal jelly proteins). The family consists of five main honeybee larval jelly (49 -87 kDa) was performed by members (MRJP1, MRJP2, MRJP3, MRJP4, MRJP5). the sequencing of new complementary DNAs (cDNAs) obtained from a honeybee head cDNA library, by the The proteins MRJP3 and MRJP5 are polymorphic. determination of N-terminal sequences of the proteins, MRJPs account for 82 to 90% of total larval jelly protein, and they contain a relatively high amount of and by analyses of the newly obtained and known essential amino acids. These findings support the idea sequence data concerning the proteins. It was found that MRJPs play an important role in honeybee nutri-that royal jelly (RJ) and worker jelly (WJ) contain identical major proteins and that all the proteins belong tion.
Organization and Potential Function of the mrjp3 Locus in Four Honeybee Species
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2005
Royal jelly is a nutritious secretion produced by nurse honeybees to provision queens and growing larvae. Major proteins of royal jelly are mutually similar, and they all belong to the MRJP/yellow protein family (pfam03022). The mrjp3 loci in four traditional honeybee species (Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, and Apis florea) were sequenced and found to share high sequence and structural similarities. PCR analyses confirmed the presence of an extensive repetitive region, which showed size and sequence polymorphisms in all species. The evolutionary history of mrjp genes and their repetitive regions was reconstructed from their nucleotide sequences. The analyses proved that the repeat region appeared early in the evolution of the mrjp gene family and that the extreme elongation of the repeat is mrjp3 specific. In the MRJPs was documented a correlation between nitrogen content and repeat length. Therefore, it is argued that the repeat occurred due to a selection for an increase in nitrogen storage for a more efficient nutrition of queens and larvae.
Abundant small RNAs in the reproductive tissues and eggs of the honey bee, Apis mellifera
BMC Genomics
Background Polyandrous social insects such as the honey bee are prime candidates for parental manipulation of gene expression in offspring. Although there is good evidence for parent-of-origin effects in honey bees the epigenetic mechanisms that underlie these effects remain a mystery. Small RNA molecules such as miRNAs, piRNAs and siRNAs play important roles in transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and in the regulation of gene expression during development. Results Here we present the first characterisation of small RNAs present in honey bee reproductive tissues: ovaries, spermatheca, semen, fertilised and unfertilised eggs, and testes. We show that semen contains fewer piRNAs relative to eggs and ovaries, and that piRNAs and miRNAs which map antisense to genes involved in DNA regulation and developmental processes are differentially expressed between tissues. tRNA fragments are highly abundant in semen and have a similar profile to those seen in the semen of other animals. Int...
Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1999
Major proteins of honey bee (Apis mellifera) royal jelly are members of the MRJP protein family. One MRJP protein termed MRJP3 exhibits a size polymorphism as detected by SDS-PAGE. In this report we show that polymorphism of the MRJP3 protein is a consequence of the polymorphism of a region with a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) located at the C-terminal part of the MRJP3 coding region. We present the characterization of five polymorphic alleles of MRJP3 by DNA sequencing. By PCR analyses, at least 10 alleles of distinct sizes were found in randomly sampled bees. Studies with nurse bees from a single honeybee colony revealed both Mendelian inheritance and very high variability of the MRJP3 genomic locus. The high variability and simple detection of the MRJP3 polymorphism may be useful for genotyping of individuals in studies of the honeybee.