Genomic, transcriptomic and metagenomic in populations of native stingless bees aiming the search for detoxification genes

Abstract

The drastic decline of bees, be they native or exotic, is an imminent threat to ecosystem services of pollination, and consequently to world food security and the preservation and conservation of natural resources. Several factors have been associated with this decline, among them the use of insecticides deserves mention since Brazil is the world's largest consumer of pesticides. Thus, the present study proposes to assemble a genome and transcriptome of the native stingless honey bee Melipona scutellaris in order to study the gene expression of proteins linked to the detoxification of these insects submitted to xenobiotics. In addition, the objective is to identify and evaluate the intestinal microbial profile of these insects by relating the ingestion of active ingredients present in xenobiotics to microbial community mortality. To do so, the genome draft will be assembled using the 10x Genomics technique, which improves the ability to form very large sequences to facilitate the assembly of the transcriptome of bees submitted to sublethal doses of the imidacloprid insecticide using the Next Generation sequencing platform, which also provides high throughput sequencing. In addition, the objective of this study was to evaluate the intestinal microbiome of individuals submitted to sublethal doses of insecticides through the metagenome, which will also be obtained using a new generation platform. These analyzes get to elucidate some mechanisms of response to pesticides so that new strategies of conservation and management of native species are rethought against the results found. (AU)