卵虫源对蜂王培育质量的影响及其遗传分子机理

蜜蜂是一种信息交流高度结构化的社会群体。当蜂群繁殖至一定群势后，工蜂会分泌蜂蜡建造王台，并让蜂王在王台中产卵，发育为新蜂王（利用王台中的卵育王）；当蜂群失王后，工蜂会选择工蜂巢房中的卵或小幼虫培育为新蜂王（利用工蜂巢房中的卵或小幼虫育王），并且优先选择卵，其机理尚不清楚。鉴于此，本项目以西方蜜蜂为试验材料，利用具有知识产权的育王新技术，探索这三种卵虫源对F1代、F2代、F3代蜂王培育质量的影响以及其转录组和DNA甲基化差异，分析卵虫源对蜂王培育质量的影响及其分子机理，并进行累代差异分析，同时利用行为学方法比较分析F3代蜂王后代工蜂的采集能力和归巢能力，挖掘其采集归巢能力与蜂王的内在关系，验证卵虫源对蜂王培育质量的影响，以此来探索自然蜂群选择培育蜂王的行为机理。本项目不仅是对蜜蜂生物学的突破和创新，而且对人工育王以及探索蜜蜂发生CCD现象的机理有望提供新思路与方法，因而具有重要的研究意义。

Honeybees are a highly structured social group with highly information sharing. When the colony propagates to a certain of population, worker bees will build queen cells in colony, where the queen lays egg developing to a new queen (Rearing queen with the egg from queen cell). When the colony lose the old queen, worker bees will rear a new queen with the egg or larvae from worker cell (Rearing queen with the egg or larvae from work cell), preferentially with eggs. Its mechanism is still unclear. The experiments are conducted with Apis mellifera and the quality of F1, F2 and F3 generations of queens reared with egg from queen cell, egg and larvae from worker cell will be compared using the new method of queen rearing with the intellectual property rights, while the transcriptome and DNA methylation of the reared queens will be tested. The effect of three egg or larvae sources on the quality of reared queens and their molecular mechanisms will be analyzed, and the generational differences will be analyzed. Meanwhile, the homing and foraging ability of works laid by the three kinds of F3 generation queens will be compared, so as to explore the inner relationship between homing-foraging ability of worker bees and the mother queens and to verify the effect of egg source on queen rearing quality. All the results aim to elucidate the behavioral mechanism of queen rearing in natural bee colony. The results will shed light not only on the bee biology, but also have practical applications potential to explore the mechanism of CCD and queen rearing with high quality.