Identification of long noncoding RNAs reveals the effects of dinotefuran on the brain in Apis mellifera (Hymenopptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Background Dinotefuran (CAS No. 165252–70-0), a neonicotinoid insecticide, has been used to protect various crops against invertebrate pests and has been associated with numerous negative sublethal effects on honey bees. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in mediating various biological and pathological processes, involving transcriptional and gene regulation. The effects of dinotefuran on lncRNA expression and lncRNA function in the honey bee brain are still obscure. Results Through RNA sequencing, a comprehensive analysis of lncRNAs and mRNAs was performed following exposure to 0.01 mg/L dinotefuran for 1, 5, and 10 d. In total, 312 lncRNAs and 1341 mRNAs, 347 lncRNAs and 1458 mRNAs, and 345 lncRNAs and 1155 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed (DE) on days 1, 5 and 10, respectively. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) indicated that the dinotefuran-treated group showed enrichment in carbohydrate and protein metabolism and immune-inflammatory responses such as glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversion, and Hippo and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathways. Moreover, the DE lncRNA TCONS_00086519 was shown by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to be distributed mainly in the cytoplasm, suggesting that it may serve as a competing endogenous RNA and a regulatory factor in the immune response to dinotefuran. Conclusion This study characterized the expression profile of lncRNAs upon exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides in young adult honey bees and provided a framework for further study of the role of lncRNAs in honey bee growth and the immune response.

The Transcriptomic Landscape of Molecular Effects after Sublethal Exposure to Dinotefuran on Apis mellifera

“…All four neonicotinoid active ingredients had inhibitory effects on acetylcholinesterase activity [31]. The KEGG analysis results revealed that most of the DEGs were related to material metabolism and were mainly enriched in the fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, insect hormone synthesis, nucleic acid metabolism, and other metabolic pathways, similar to the results reported that differentially expressed lncRNAs in dinotefuran-treated groups enriched in carbohydrate and protein metabolism [18].…”

“…A previous study found that S-dinotefuran's acute oral toxicity to juvenile worker bees is higher than that of R-dinotefuran, while the inhibitory effect of R-dinotefuran on honeybees' learning and memory ability was greater than that of S-dinotefuran, which may be associated with high expression of SERCA, Kca, and Maxik genes [17]. A recent study indicated that when young adult bees were exposed to dinotefuran, differentially expressed lncRNAs were mainly involved in development and the immune response [18]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no information about whether the mRNA expression profile of bees changes after treatment with a sublethal dose of dinotefuran.…”

Regulatory roles of long non-coding RNAs in short-term heat stress in adult worker bees

“…Previous studies have found that some lncRNAs can modulate cell signal transduction and biological processes by influencing downstream components of the MAPK pathway [ 47 ]. LncRNAs were involved in the hippo and TGF- β signaling pathways [ 21 ]. In summary, these analysis indicate that lncRNAs may affect the relevant reactions of honeybees to heat stress by regulating components of signal transduction pathways and signaling molecules, such as kinases and transcription factors, or by mediating the regulation of signaling molecules, such as mRNA-binding proteins.…”

Temperature and livestock grazing trigger transcriptome responses in bumblebees along an elevational gradient

“…Here, the GSEA function ( Subramanian et al., 2005 ) was applied for gene set enrichment analysis considering the DESeq2 log2FoldChange of all analysed genes and the function emapplot was used for result visualization ( Reimand et al., 2019 ). This method was used in other recently studies on bee transcriptomes ( Chen et al., 2021 ; Holman et al., 2019 ; Huang et al., 2021 ).…”