Honeybees as important managed pollinators are critical for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem. Nucleic acid based analysis including DNA and RNA enabled broader scope of research in functional genomics, disease diagnostics, mutant screening, and genetic breeding of honeybees. Next Generation Sequencing technologies have served as great tools to provide insights into genome biology, behavioral ecology, social evolution, and pollinator disease. Epigenetic marks such as CpG DNA methylation may regulate gene activities in the invertebrate genome. However, transcriptomic analysis via RNA-seq is also needed to study the role of DNA methylation in gene expression and regulation. Multiple levels of “omics” studies will be able to integrate genomic variation, transcriptomic profiles, and epigenomic information to elaborate mechanistic characteristics underlying phenotypic variation. One limitation may due to the sample preparation procedures to obtain high quality of DNA and RNA material. We demonstrated an undescribed method for dual extractions of the DNA and RNA from a single individual, and compared the column-based kit to the precipitation kit for the quality and quantity of the DNA and RNA molecules. Our study showed the precipitation based method yield high quantity of RNA but not for DNA. The column-based method may obtain high quality of DNA. Our findings provided the first standard method of dual extraction of nucleic acids for improving sequencing experiments and genomic studies in honeybees.
The marginal value of relations. A review by Michael DoebeliFoundations of Social Evolution. By Steven A. Frank. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 1998. xii + 268 pages. ISBN 0-691-05934-9. $16.95/f13.95 paper, $49.50/f35.00 cloth.
