Does the molting hormone shape the adult bee brain?
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1
Wake Forest University, Biology, United States
Studies in vertebrates have demonstrated key roles for nuclear receptors (NRs) in development, reproduction, and regulation of metabolism. A similarly broad range of roles is attributed to insect NRs. An unusual aspect of NR function in insects is a conserved cascade of NR gene expression triggered by the liganded EcR-USP receptor complex. This cascade represents the initial cellular response to ecdysteroids, and includes other insect NRs expressed in a sequence first described for larval-pupal transition in Drosophila melanogaster. EcR, USP, HR3, HR4, HR78, E75, E78, and FTZ-F1 function as so-called early genes in the metamorphosis cascade. The same NRs assigned roles at metamorphosis also regulate the vitellogenesis that follows a blood meal in female mosquitos. Prior to the Apis mellifera genome project, partial cDNA sequences for USP, Hr3, ERR, SVP, Ftz-f1 and Hnf4 were identified in an expressed sequence tag library developed from adult bee brain. Possible relevance of the metamorphosis transcriptional cascade to patterns of gene expression in the adult honey bee brain was suggested by localized expression of molting hormone responsive genes (E93, E75, E74, Hr38 and EcR) in the mushroom bodies of the worker. It was subsequently shown that expression of the EcR, USP, E75, Ftz-f1, and Hr3 genes in adult honey bee mushroom bodies is modulated by endogenous ecdysteroid pulses, and that treatment with a high dose of 20E induces a cascade of gene expression similar to the canonical cascade defined for D. melanogaster metamorphosis and A. aegypti vitellogenesis. Current investigations use neuronal cytoarchitecture (studied in vivo with the Golgi technique and in vitro in primary neuron culture) coupled with quantitative studies of gene expression to define a role for ecdysteroids in the regulation of adult brain plasticity.
Acknowledgements
Supported by NSF grant IOS 0949728 to SEF and RAV.
Keywords:
20-hydroxyecdysone,
Apis mellifera,
Ecdysteroids,
nuclear receptor
Conference:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, Ann Arbor, United States, 13 Jul - 16 Jul, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Invited Symposium
Topic:
Developmental endocrinology
Citation:
Fahrbach
SE and
Velarde
RA
(2011). Does the molting hormone shape the adult bee brain?.
Front. Endocrinol.
Conference Abstract:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.04.00131
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Received:
24 Jul 2011;
Published Online:
09 Aug 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Susan E Fahrbach, Wake Forest University, Biology, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, United States, fahrbach@wfu.edu