蜜蜂microRNA的研究进展

Progress in microRNAs in honey bees

MicroRNA（miRNA）是一类长度为18—24nt的内源性非编码小RNA分子，它能通过与靶标mRNA分子互补结合抑制蛋白质翻译或导致mRNA降解，从而调控靶基因表达。蜜蜂是重要的社会性经济昆虫，一直是国际上热门的研究对象。迄今为止，通过各种生物技术在蜜蜂中发现已鉴定注册的miRNA共有218个，对蜜蜂miRNA的研究表明其在蜜蜂的胚胎发育、级型分化、劳动分工和免疫防御等方面可能具有重要的调控作用。本文就miRNA对蜜蜂蜂王和工蜂级型分化、哺育蜂和采集蜂劳动分工、舞蹈行为、脑部神经功能及免疫防御等方面调控作用的最新研究进展进行了综述，以期为进一步研究miRNA提供借鉴和参考。

MicroRNAs （miRNAs） are a class of 18 -24-nucleotide （nt）, endogenously initiated, small noncoding, single stranded RNAs that can regulate target gene expression via either translationalrepression or mRNA degradation by combining with target mRNA complementarily. Honey bees are important eusocial and economic insects, and they have been the popular research objects at theinternational level. So far, 215 miRNAs in honey bees have been identified by a variety of biological technologies and registered. A series of studies on honey bee miRNAs showed that they are involved inregulating the embryonic development, caste differentiation, division of labor in workers and immunity defense. In this article, we reviewed the advances in researches of miRNAs in regulating castedifferentiation between queen and worker bee, division of labor between nurse and forager, dancing behaviour, brain neurological function and immune defence in honey bees, aiming to provide referencesfor further research.