Comprehensive Gene Expression Dataset for Two Honey Bee Species Published in Scientific Data to Advance Molecular Foundations of Honey Bee Research：2025-06-05

A research paper titled "Comprehensive expression data for two honey bee species, Apis mellifera and Apis cerana japonica" by a research group including Research Fellow Dr. Kiyoshi Kimura from our Research and Development Department and Professor Hidemasa Bono, a faculty member of our collaborative research chair, has been published in Scientific Data.

The paper is accessible at:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05279-z

This study established comprehensive gene expression datasets for two economically important honey bee species: the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and the Japanese honey bee (Apis cerana japonica). The research team overcame the technical challenges of honey bee sample preparation under standardized conditions by implementing a specialized egg-laying box system for RNA-Seq data acquisition. For A. cerana japonica, the study generated de novo reference transcriptome sequences comprising 47,867 transcripts and comprehensive functional annotation data through integration of genome sequences and RNA-Seq data. Hierarchical clustering analysis demonstrated developmental stage-specific transcriptional profile segregation, confirming data reliability and quality. These datasets provide essential genomic resources for molecular studies of honey bee biology, investigation of caste determination mechanisms, and comparative evolutionary analyses of social insects.