Meta-analysis of public RNA sequencing data revealed potential key genes associated with reproductive division of labor in social Hymenoptera and termites

Abstract

Eusociality in insects has evolved independently many times. One of the most notable characteris-tics of eusociality is the reproductive division of labor. In social insects, the reproductive division of labor is accomplished by queens and workers. Transcriptome analyses of queens and workers have been conducted for various eusocial species. However, the genes that regulate the reproduc-tive division of labor across all or multiple eusocial species have not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis using publicly available RNA-sequencing data from four major groups of social insects. In this meta-analysis, we collected 258 pairs (queen vs. work-er) of RNA-sequencing data from 34 eusocial species. The meta-analysis identified a total of 20 genes that were differentially expressed in queens or workers. Out of these, 12 genes have not pre-viously been reported to be involved in the reproductive division of labor. Functional annotation of these 20 genes in other organisms revealed that they could be regulators of behaviors and phys-iological states related to the reproductive division of labor. These 20 genes, revealed using mas-sive datasets of numerous eusocial insects, may be key regulators of the reproductive division of labor.

Meta-analysis of gonadal transcriptome provides novel insights into sex change mechanism across protogynous fishes

“…Recently, by amalgamating transcriptome data from multiple studies, meta-analysis has attracted attention as a powerful tool capable of providing novel insights overlooked by traditional hypothesis-driven research methods [33][34][35]. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to identify the shared factors involved in gonadal transformation across species using a meta-analysis of publicly available transcriptome data from multiple experiments and species.…”