Progress in microRNAs in honey bees

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of 18-24-nucleotide (nt), endogenously initiated, small noncoding, single stranded RNAs that can regulate target gene expression via either translational repression or mRNA degradation by combining with target mRNA complementarily. Honey bees are important eusocial and economic insects, and they have been the popular research objects at the international level. So far, 218 miRNAs in honey bees have been identified by a variety of biological technologies and registered. A series of studies on honey bee miRNAs showed that they are involved in regulating the embryonic development, caste differentiation, division of labor in workers and immunity defense. In this article, we reviewed the advances in researches of miRNAs in regulating caste differentiation between queen and worker bee, division of labor between nurse and forager, dancing behaviour, brain neurological function and immune defence in honey bees, aiming to provide references for further research.