The hypoharyngeal glands (HGs) are the major organ for synthesizing and secreting royal jelly (RJ) in nurse honeybees. To eliminate the influence of age, we explored the molecular basis of RJ production by determining the morphology and protein content, and comprehensively comparing the transcriptome of HGs of age-matched nurses and foragers obtained from an established colony. Acinus area and total protein content of HGs in nurses were significantly increased compared with aged-matched foragers. RNA-seq analysis showed that 510 up-regulated genes in HGs of nurses, mainly enriched on translation, transcription, DNA replication, and energy metabolism, were associated with synthesis and secretion of RJ, suggesting that HGs of nurses might employ diverse strategies to drive RJ synthesis. Particularly, MRJP1, MRJP4, and MRJP5, the primary components of fresh RJ, were extremely higher in HGs of nurses than those in the corresponding age foragers. This study will provide considerable insight into the strategies employed by nurses for RJ secretion.

中文翻译：

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同龄蜜蜂和觅食蜜蜂下咽腺的转录组比较分析

下咽腺（HGs）是蜜蜂合成和分泌蜂王浆（RJ）的主要器官。为了消除年龄的影响，我们通过确定形态和蛋白质含量，并综合比较从已建立的群体中获得的年龄匹配的护士和觅食者的 HG 转录组来探索 RJ 产生的分子基础。与同龄觅食者相比，护士的腺泡面积和 HGs 的总蛋白含量显着增加。RNA-seq分析显示，护士HGs中510个上调基因，主要集中在翻译、转录、DNA复制和能量代谢等方面，与RJ的合成和分泌有关，表明护士HGs可能采用多种策略来驱动RJ综合。特别地，MRJP1、MRJP4和MRJP5，新鲜 RJ 的主要成分在护士的 HG 中显着高于相应年龄的觅食者。这项研究将为护士使用的 RJ 分泌策略提供相当多的见解。