DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw6v1
title: Data from: Female developmental environment delays development of male honeybee (Apis mellifera)

description: Background Nutrition and cell size play an important role in the
 determination of caste differentiation in queen and
 worker of honeybees (Apis mellifera), whereas the
 haploid genome dominates the differentiation of drones.
 However, the effects of female developmental environment
 on the development of males remain unclear. In this study, young
 drone larvae were transferred into worker cells (WCs) or remained in drone
 cells (DCs) to rear drones. The drone larvae were also grafted
 into queen cells (QCs) for 48 hrs and then transplanted
 into drone cells until emerging. Morphological indexes and
 reproductive organs of these three types of newly emerged drones
 were measured. Newly emerged drones and 3-day drone
 larvae from WCs, DCs and QCs were sequenced by RNA sequencing
 (RNA-Seq). Results The amount of food remaining in cells of the QC and WC
 groups was significantly different to that in the DC group at the early
 larval stage. Morphological results showed that newly emerged
 DC drones had bigger body sizes and more well-developed
 reproductive tissues than WC and QC drones, whereas the reproductive
 tissues of QC drones were relatively larger than those of WC
 drones. Additionally, gene expression results showed a clear difference
 among three groups. At the larval stage, there were 889, 1761 and 1927
 significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in WC/DC,
 QC/DC and WC/QC comparisons, respectively. The number of
 DEGs decreased in adult drones of these
 three comparisons [678 (WC/DC), 338 (QC/DC) and
 518 (WC/QC)]. A high number of
 DEGs were involved in sex differentiation,
 growth, olfaction, vision, mammalian target of rapamycin
 (mTOR), Wnt signaling pathways, and other
 processes.  Conclusion This study
 demonstrated that the developmental environment of
 honeybee females can delay male development, which
 serves as a model for understanding the regulation of sex differentiation
 and male development in social insects by environmental factors.
description: For the raw data of table
 1, honeybee queens were caged on an empty drone frame to lay eggs for 6
 hrs. Eggs were grafted into queen and worker cells before hatching
 respectively. The eggs that remained in drone cells were used as controls.
 The weight of food remaining in three types of cells at 24 hrs, 48hrs, and
 72 hrs was measured using an analytical balance For the raw data of table 2-5,
 newly emerged drones were captured and weighed using an analytical balance
 (0.01 mg, AUY120, Shimazu Co. Ltd., Japan). Subsequently, drones were
 anesthetized by CO<sub>2</sub><sub>,</sub> and their wing length and width, thorax width and head horizontal area were measured by a microscopic imaging system. For the raw data of table 6-8, drones were dissected, and the testes, seminal vesicles and mucous glands were taken out and washed with saline solution and placed on glass slides. After removing redundant tissues, the location of the tissues was adjusted on glass slides, and the images were taken under the microscopic imaging system. The tunica testis of the testes was removed, and seminiferous tubules were divided into many small aggregations according to the method developed by Tavares et al (2003). The horizontal area of seminal vesical and mucous glands was measured by Image J, and the length of seminiferous tubules was measured by Troup view.
description: These data might be useful for studies on honeybee biology and
 apiculture.