Molecular Cloning and Expression Analysis of TH Gene in the Ant Polyrhachis vicina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) plays an important role in the synthesis of L-DOPA. In this report, a TH homologue was isolated from Polyrhachis vicina Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The full –length cDNA of PvTH is 2429bp, which contains an open reading frame of 1713 bp. The 5’-and 3’- UTR s are 357 and 359 bp long, respectively. The open reading frame encodes a deduced 570 amino-acid peptide with a calculated molecular mass of 65.09 kilodaltons and an isoelectric point of 5.26. To compare PvTH mRNA expression during P. vicina development and the heads of different castes, real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used. The results show that PvTH mRNA is differentially expressed in the ant development, in whole bodies and in the heads of different castes. During the development, the highest expression level is in pupae. The levels also vary among castes, the highest level is in workers. The investigation revel that PvTH is related with the developmental and caste-specifically at the level of transcription.

Keywords

• tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)
• molecular cloning
• Polyrhachis vicina Roger
• real-time quantitative PCR