RNA-Seq reveals that mitochondrial genes and long non-coding RNAs may play important roles in the bivoltine generations of the non-social Neotropical bee Tetrapedia diversipes

In animals, voltinism is a result of evolutionary adaptations to environmental conditions. These evolutionary adaptations may profoundly affect the population structure and social organization level. To study the bivoltinism of the solitary bee Tetrapedia diversipes, we performed comparative transcriptomics analyses of foundresses and larvae from the two reproductive generations (G1 and G2) produced per year by this bee. Most of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found between foundresses: 52 DEGs between adults, but only one between the larvae. Among the DEGs in foundresses, 46 were higher expressed in G1 and most of them (38) have no functional annotation defined in the database. Interestingly, mitochondrial genes and long non-coding RNAs were the only type of identified transcripts in the set of upregulated genes. These results highlight the importance of developing studies on non-model species and suggest that maternal genes may be of importance for determining larval diapause in T. diversipes.