蜜蜂级型分化的研究进展

摘要：蜜蜂是一种特殊的社会性昆虫，既有一般昆虫所共有的特性，又独具特点，级型分化就是其中一项.蜂王和工蜂都是由受精卵发育而成，虽然他们有相同的遗传物质，却会发育成无论是外表还是生理都截然不同的两种形态，蜂王不但个体大寿命长而且具有高繁殖力；但是，工蜂个体小、寿命短，最关键的是工蜂的卵巢几乎没有发育，无法进行繁殖活动。到底是什么因素引起的这些不同，为了解开这个秘密，一直以来学者们对影响蜜蜂级型分化的因素进行了广泛而深入的研究，本文主要从营养、激素、DNA甲基化以及基因和蛋白质的差异表达五个方面对级型分化进行了综述，并对以后的研究方向进行了展望。

Research progress on the caste differentiation in the honeybee

Abstract: Honeybee is a typical social insect specie. Honeybees have the common characteristics of insect, also have unique characteristics. One of the unique characteristics is caste differentiation. Queen and work all develop from zygote. But they switch into two different castes with different physiological and morphology characteristics from same genome. The queens are in large body size, long life-span and fertile, while the workers are in small body size, short life-span and nearly sterile. What have caused these changes ,a number of studies have been conducted on the differences between honeybee workers and queens to solve the secret. This review will recap the caste differentiation from five aspects of nutrition, hormones, DNA methylation, differential gene and protein expression .Furthermore, high light unanswered questions in need of further research.