Fig. 4

Differentially expressed genes in workers, IWs and NRs. a The number of the differentially expressed genes in workers, IWs and NRs. The x-axis indicates the three stages (worker: female workers in natal colonies; IW: isolated female workers from their natal colonies; NR: female neotenic reproductives differentiated from isolated workers). Red represent transcripts that were significant up-regulated, and green indicate that those transcripts were significantly downregulated. The parameters FDR ≤ 0.001 and log2Ratio ≥ 1 were used as the thresholds to judge the significance of gene expression differences. b The scatter plot of the differentially expressed genes in workers, IWs and NRs. Red and green scatter plot represent upregulated genes and downregulated, respectively. Black scatter plot represent that the genes were not differential expressed. IW, isolated workers; NR, neotenic reproductives