The dor gene (diabetes and obesity regulated) as a developmental and sexual maturation regulator in Apis mellifera

• Grant number: 17/22119-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Zilá Luz Paulino Simões
• Grantee: Nicole Fernanda Sozza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The DOR gene (Diabetes and Obesity Regulated), besides being very conserved on insects and mammals, plays a role in similar molecular pathways on these two groups. In both cases, it's responsible for coding a protein that performs as a coactivator of nuclear receptors that are involved in hormonal cascades in autophagic processes and also in the insulin pathway. In mammals, DOR is known as Tumor protein p53 inducible nuclear protein 2 (Tp53inp2), encodes a protein that acts as a coactivator of thyroid hormone receptor (TR±1), besides being a key element on tumoral suppression, acting as an antiproliferative and proapoptotic molecule. In Drosophila melanogaster, DOR (dDOR) is a coactivator of the ecdysone receptor (EcR), which is an ortholog of TR±1. In both mammals and insects, DOR is involved in the insulin pathway acting in consense with FOXO, and also plays a role in the regulation of autophagy in mammals and Drosophila cells. There are few studies about the relation between DOR and sexual maturation in insects, despite being a gene that is intimately connected to the hormonal response of ecdysone. The DOR gene is also present in the social bee Apis mellifera (amDOR) and, interestingly, it has major similarity with its ortholog in mammals, which suggests that bees can be a more suitable model to study the function of this gene on a molecular level, being able to establish a parallel with conserved precesses in these two organisms, mainly related to sexual maturation, hormone responses, and insulin pathway. We propose in this study to describe how the DOR gene is modulated throughout the development of A. mellifera and its relations between sexual maturation and metabolism.