关键词: 中华蜜蜂, 工蜂, 信息素结合蛋白, 克隆, 时空表达, 实时定量PCR

Abstract: Pheromone binding proteins (PBPs) play an important role in recognition, transmission and processing of insect pheromones. In this study, a cDNA named Ac-ASP1 encoding a PBP was cloned (from the Chinese native honeybee, Apis cerana cerana. The predicted protein has six conservative cysteines in mature peptide, a typical symbol of odorant binding proteins (OBPs). The sequence had been submitted into GenBank and registered is the accession no. DQ449670. The profile of spatio-temporal expression of Ac-ASP1 was identified by real-time PCR. The results of absolute quantitation showed that Ac-ASP1 was expressed at a higher level in antenna (2.07×10⁶ copy number/μg), but at a less level in other tissues including head, thorax, abdomen, wings and legs (10.2 copy number/μg); while the results of relative quantitation revealed that Ac-ASP1 was expressed in two high abundance periods: from larva to the 6th day of adult and around the 21st day of adult. These results may provide the reference to ascertain the function of Ac-ASP1 involved in signal recognition and transmission of queen pheromone.

Key words: Apis cerana cerana, worker bee, pheromone binding proteins (PBPs), cloning, spatio-temporal expression, real-time PCR