After creating the honeybee model, we received feedback from Pam and my response:

•  The involvement of TOR is not clear in our model
  • TOR gene regulates YAP, a component of the HIPPO pathway
• How could royalactin regulate the EGFR pathway
  • the royal actin acts as a ligand and binds to receptors in of the EGFR pathway thereby inducing the pathway.
• Where does DNMT3 come into play
  • DNMT3 is activated by p-cumaric acid in bread is involved in promoting the worker phenotype
• How could 10HDA affect physio-metabolic gene’s expression?
  • maybe inhibiting the action of deacetylases?

Figure 1. model of factors that regulate honeybee caste differentiation with a focus on the EGFR pathway.

Group members: Joanne, Melissa, Meilin, Julie-Anne, Evan Z, Tanis

Summary of the model: The egfr pathway is activated by p-cumaric acid and royal actin. egfr regulates MAPK and S6K that affects phenotype of honeybees. 10HDA and p-cumaric acid may be involved in differential gene expression, leading to specific castes.

Gaps in evidence: We think that 10HDA may affect the physio-metabolic genes, but there is no evidence to support this statement. The link between 10HDA and egfr pathway is unclear.

A suggestion for the two most critical or most interesting experiments that the community should next focus on: Study the role of 10HDA in the egfr pathway and on the physio-metabolic genes. Can do a knockdown and overexpression experiment and see the changes of expression profile of genes in the egfr pathway or physiometabolic genes

REFERENCES:

Ashby, R., Forêt, S., Searle, I., & Maleszka, R. (2016). MicroRNAs in honey bee caste determination Scientific Reports, 6(1), 18794. doi:10.1038/srep1879

Kamakura, M. (2011). Royalactin induces queen differentiation in honeybees. Nature, 473(7348), 478-483. doi:10.1038/nature10093

Li, J., Issa, J. J., Bedford, M. T., Castellano, S., Raynal, N. J. -., Gharibyan, V., . . . Spannhoff, A. (2011). Histone deacetylase inhibitor activity in royal jelly might facilitate caste switching in bees. EMBO Reports, 12(3), 238-243. doi:10.1038/embor.2011.9

Kucharski, R., Foret, S., & Maleska, R. (2015). EGFR gene methylation is not involved in royalactin controlled phenotypic polymorphism in honey bees. Scientific Reports, 5(1), 14070. doi:10.1038

Mao, W., Schuler, M. A., & Berenbaum, M. R. (2015). A dietary phytochemical alters caste-associated gene expression in honey bees. Science Advances, 1(7) doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500795

Zhu, K., Liu, M., Fu, Z., Zhou, Z., Kong, Y., Liang, H., . . . Chen, X. (2017). Plant microRNAs in larval food regulate honeybee caste development. PLoS Genetics, 13(8), e1006946. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006946