The queen and worker castes of the honey bee are very distinct phenotypes that result from different epigenomically regulated developmental programs. In commercial queen rearing, it is common to produce queens by transplanting worker larvae to queen cells to be raised as queens. Here, we examined the consequences of this practice for queen ovary development and genome-wide methylation. Queens reared from transplanted older worker larvae weighed less and had fewer ovarioles than queens reared from transplanted eggs. Methylome analyses revealed a large number of genomic regions in comparisons of egg reared and larvae reared queens. The methylation differences became more pronounced as the age of the transplanted larva increased. Differentially methylated genes had functions in reproduction, longevity, immunity, and metabolic functions suggesting that the methylome of larval reared queens was compromised and more worker-like than the methylome of queens reared from eggs. These findings caution that queens reared from worker larvae are likely less fecund and less healthy than queens reared from transplanted eggs.

中文翻译：

---

商业化蜂王饲养方式对蜂王繁殖力和基因组甲基化的影响

蜜蜂的蜂王和工蜂种姓是非常不同的表型，是由不同的表观基因组调控的发育程序造成的。在商业蜂王饲养中，通常通过将工蚁幼虫移植到蜂王细胞中以作为蜂王饲养来生产蜂王。在这里，我们研究了这种做法对皇后卵巢发育和全基因组甲基化的影响。与用移植卵培育的蜂王相比，用移植的年长工蚁幼虫培育的蜂王体重更轻，卵巢的数量也更少。甲基化组分析揭示了在鸡蛋饲养和幼虫饲养的蜂王的比较中存在大量基因组区域。随着移植幼虫年龄的增加，甲基化差异变得更加明显。差异甲基化基因在生殖、长寿、免疫、和代谢功能表明，幼虫饲养的皇后的甲基化组受到损害，并且比用卵饲养的皇后的甲基化组更像工人。这些发现警告说，与用移植卵饲养的蜂王相比，用工蚁幼虫饲养的蜂后可能不那么生育力和健康。