Plant microRNAs in larval food regulate honeybee caste development

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006946
• Publication Date: 2017-08-31T17:27:20Z
• Authors: Kegan Zhu; Minghui Liu; Zheng Fu; Zhen Zhou; Yan Kong; Hongwei Liang; Zheguang Lin; Jun Luo; Huoqing Zheng; Ping Wan; Junfeng Zhang; Ke Zen; Jiong Chen; Fuliang Hu; Chen-Yu Zhang; Jie Ren; Xi Chen
• Keywords: Royal Jelly; Caste

The major environmental determinants of honeybee caste development come from larval nutrients: royal jelly stimulates the differentiation larvae into queens, whereas beebread leads to worker bee fate. However, these are not fully characterized. Here we report that plant RNAs, particularly miRNAs, which more enriched in than jelly, delay and decrease body ovary size honeybees, thereby preventing queens inducing bees. Mechanistic studies reveal amTOR, a stimulatory gene differentiation, is direct target miR162a. Interestingly, same effect also exists non-social Drosophila. When such RNAs miRNAs fed Drosophila larvae, they cause extended developmental times reductions weight length, fecundity. This study identifies an uncharacterized function fine-tunes development, offering hints for understanding cross-kingdom interaction co-evolution.