Evaluation of functional categories of summer and winter bee
differentially expressed genes
Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analyses showed that several biological
processes are differentially regulated between each group (Tables
S9-14). The most significantly enriched and specific terms for each
comparison are displayed in Tables 3-4.
In fat body tissues, DEGs between nurses and foragers were enriched for
GO terms associated with the regulation of dendrite development and
morphogenesis, mRNA processing, and feeding behavior. DEGs between
winter bees and foragers were enriched for GO terms associated with
adult feeding behavior, thermotaxis, and neuromuscular junction
development, in addition to transcriptional regulatory processes,
including mRNA catabolism and poly(A) tail shortening. In contrast, DEGs
between winter bees and nurses were enriched for terms associated with
lumen formation of open tracheal systems, actin filament capping, muscle
filament assembly, and germarium-derived oocyte differentiation and fate
determination (Table 3).
In flight muscles, DEGs between nurses and foragers were enriched for GO
terms associated with regulation of humoral immune response, somatic
muscle development, RNA stability, and membrane protein organization.
DEGs between winter bees and foragers were enriched for GO terms
associated with protein maturation by iron-sulfur cluster transfer,
regulation of rhodopsin mediated signaling pathway, and regulation of
compound eye retinal cell death. DEGs between winter bees and nurses
were enriched for GO terms associated with several processes related to
morphological development, protein localization, post-translational
protein modifications, and immune system function (Table 4).