Lin, G.; Huang, Z.; He, B.; Jiang, K.; Su, T.; Zhao, F. Evolutionary Adaptation of Genes Involved in Galactose Derivatives Metabolism in Oil-Tea Specialized Andrena Species. Genes2023, 14, 1117.
Lin, G.; Huang, Z.; He, B.; Jiang, K.; Su, T.; Zhao, F. Evolutionary Adaptation of Genes Involved in Galactose Derivatives Metabolism in Oil-Tea Specialized Andrena Species. Genes 2023, 14, 1117.
Lin, G.; Huang, Z.; He, B.; Jiang, K.; Su, T.; Zhao, F. Evolutionary Adaptation of Genes Involved in Galactose Derivatives Metabolism in Oil-Tea Specialized Andrena Species. Genes2023, 14, 1117.
Lin, G.; Huang, Z.; He, B.; Jiang, K.; Su, T.; Zhao, F. Evolutionary Adaptation of Genes Involved in Galactose Derivatives Metabolism in Oil-Tea Specialized Andrena Species. Genes 2023, 14, 1117.
Abstract
Oil-tea (Camellia oleifera) is a woody oil crop whose nectar includes galactose derivatives that are toxic to honey bees. Interestingly, some mining bees of the genus Andrena can entirely live on nectar (and pollen) of oil tea and are able to metabolize these galactose derivatives. We present the first next-generation genomes for five and one Andrena species that are respectively specialized and non-specialized oil-tea pollinators, and combining with published genomes of six other Andrena species which did not visit oil-tea, we performed molecular evolution analyses on genes involved in metabolism of galactose derivatives. Six genes (NAGA, NAGA-like, galM, galK, galT, and galE) involved in galactose derivatives metabolism were identified in the five oil-tea specialized species, but only five (with the exception of NAGA-like) were discovered in the other Andrena species. Molecular evolution analyses revealed that NAGA-like, galK and galT in oil-tea specialized species appeared under positive selection. RNASeq analyses showed that NAGA-like, galK, and galT were significantly up-regulated in the specialized pollinator A. camellia compared to the non-specialized pollinator A. chekiangensis. Our study demonstrated that the genes NAGA-like, galK, and galT had played an important role in the evolutionary adaptation of the oil-tea specialized Andrena species.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
