Vitellogenin in the honey bee midgut

The alimentary canal carries out many functions critical to insect physiology, including digesting and absorbing nutrients water, housing beneficial gut bacteria, eliciting immunological responses. midgut, in particular, is a compartment for digestion absorption serves as first point of contact between ingested pathogens the immune system. Recently, we found protein vitellogenin (Vg) localized midgut cells some honey bee workers. Vg an important egg-yolk precursor nearly all oviparous animals, but it also has shared across taxa. Additional unexpected have been characterized bees, none these involve directly. Therefore, sought map how expressed this organ two most common worker behavioral groups, namely nurses foragers. We used immunohistochemistry quantitative reverse transcription PCR show different localization patterns foragers limited gene expression. Our study provides platform building more detailed understanding possible roles cells, adds current knowledge fascinating, multi-functional protein.