“…In the HPGs, SCP-2 is identified at the protein level in newly emerged bees, nurses, and foragers (gi|328790232, GeneID 408904 [Dobritzsch et al, 2019;Fujita et al, 2013;Hu et al, 2019]). None of the proteome studies identifies NPC1a at the protein level in the MDGs or the HPGs (Dobritzsch et al, 2019;Fujita et al, 2013Fujita et al, , 2018Hu et al, 2019;Huo et al, 2016). However, NPC1a is a transmembrane protein and membrane proteins are difficult to analyze with mass spectrometry because of their amphipathic nature (Mirza et al, 2007).…”