Abstract
Members of the cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel (cys-loop LGIC) superfamily mediate neurotransmission in insects and are targets of successful insecticides. We have described the cys-loop LGIC superfamily of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, which is an important crop pollinator and a key model for social interaction. The honeybee superfamily consists of 21 genes, which is slightly smaller than that of Drosophila melanogaster comprising 23 genes. As with Drosophila, the honeybee possesses ion channels gated by acetylcholine, γ-amino butyric acid, glutamate and histamine as well as orthologs of the Drosophila pH-sensitive chloride channel (pHCl), CG8916, CG12344 and CG6927. Similar to Drosophila, honeybee cys-loop LGIC diversity is broadened by differential splicing which may also serve to generate species-specific receptor isoforms. These findings on Apis mellifera enhance our understanding of cys-loop LGIC functional genomics and provide a useful basis for the development of improved insecticides that spare a major beneficial insect species.
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Acknowledgments
We are indebted to the A. mellifera Genome Project (Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine) which provided the starting point for this study. We wish to thank Valerie Raymond-Delpech for providing adult honeybees. The financial support of the Medical Research Council and Dupont is gratefully acknowledged.
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Sequence data from this article have been deposited with the EMBL/GenBank Data Libraries under accession nos. DQ667181–DQ667195.
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Jones, A.K., Sattelle, D.B. The cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel superfamily of the honeybee, Apis mellifera . Invert Neurosci 6, 123–132 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10158-006-0026-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10158-006-0026-y