Presentation Details
| Caste- and Age-Specific Plasticity in the Antennal Transcriptome of Harpegnathos saltator Cristina A.Mercado, Kayli R.Sieber, Bogdan Sieriebriennikov, Hua Yan. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA |
Abstract
The Indian jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator, exhibits reproductive plasticity in which workers who win at in-colony dueling can transition to long-lived, egg-laying gamergates in the absence of queen pheromone, increasing lifespan ~5-fold. Preliminary data suggests that chronologically older workers transition more slowly than younger workers and may do so incompletely (partial reprogramming); however, the effect of age of transition on olfaction has yet to be studied. To test whether gamergate transitions from older workers result in partial olfactory reprogramming, antennae were sampled from behaviorally validated workers (nurses and foragers) and gamergates across 1-, 4-, and 7-month age classes. 4-month-old gamergates transitioned from 1-month-old workers, while 7-month-old gamergates transitioned from 4-month-old workers. RNA was extracted using a TRIzol protocol and libraries were sequenced at the University of Florida’s ICBR. Reads were processed using a standard RNA-seq pipeline in HiPerGator, and differential expression analyses were performed in R with DESeq2. Principal component analysis (PCA) of all genes separated gamergates from workers, with gamergates exhibiting clustering by age; PCA based on Or gene expression did not explain this variation. Further, only three Ors were differentially expressed (DE) (padj <0.05) between gamergates and workers. In contrast, cytochrome P450 gene expression restored caste and age clustering in a PCA, with 44 DEGs (padj <0.05) divided between workers and gamergates. Comparisons between older gamergates and workers yielded more DEGs (1261, padj <0.05) than younger comparisons (330, padj <0.05), suggesting that transitions may not become increasingly partial with age. Further, these results indicate vital non-Or mechanisms in olfactory plasticity.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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