摘要：SummaryThe honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a well-known eusocial insect. In honeybee colonies, thousands of sterile workers, including nurse and forager bees, perform various tasks within or outside the hive, respectively. The queen is the only fertile female and is responsible for reproduction. The queen and workers share similar genomes but occupy different caste statuses. We established single-cell transcriptomic atlases of brains from queens and worker subcastes and identified five major cell groups: Kenyon, optic lobe, olfactory projection, glial, and hemocyte cells. By dividing Kenyon and glial cells into multiple subtypes based on credible markers, we observed that vitellogenin (vg) was highly expressed in specific glial-cell subtypes in brains of queens. Knockdown ofvgat the early larval stage significantly suppressed the development into adult queens. We demonstratevgexpression as a "molecular signature" for the queen caste and suggest involvement ofvgin regulating caste differentiation.Graphical abstractDisplay OmittedHighlights•scRNA-seq revealed distinct gene expression in the brains of queens and workers•Vitellogenin (vg) may represent a "molecular signature" of the queen caste•Knockdown ofvgat early larval stage suppressed development into adult queens•Vgmay be involved in regulating caste differentiationEntomology; Genetics; Omics
