Padrão de heterocromatina em corpora Allata de Melipona Scutellaris (Apidae, Meliponini)

Abstract

CHAPTER II: In a majority of Hymenoptera, the caste differentiation occurs via larva differential feeding. Melipona stingless bees represent an exception to this rule. Workers and queens emerge from brood cells of the same size, with the same quantity and quality of food and the different phenotypes of female bees depend on a mechanism involving a genetic component associated with the environmental component (food). The different female phenotypes may be a result of the caste-specific modulation of Juvenile Hormone (JH) titers during larval development. In addition, heterochromatin plays an important role in regulating gene expression during cell development and differentiation, by means of epigenetic control of physiological, morphological and behavioral processes. With the objective of evaluating the possible epigenetic role in caste differentiation in M. scutellaris, cell nuclei of the corpora allata glands of queens, workers, and JH induced queens were compared using images captured by confocal microscopy and analyzed by computational reconstruction. Presented are the results of similarities and differences in the pattern, format, and total volume of heterochromatin in the cell nuclei of corpora allata of worker and queen bees of M. scutellaris.