Figure 4. Validation of the differential expression of ten genes in high royal jelly producing bees (HRJB) and low royal jelly producing bees (LRJB) by qRT-PCR analysis. Four colonies of HRJB with a high royal jelly production and four colonies of LRJB with a low royal jelly production were selected from the back-cross progeny colonies, of which heads of nursing bees (n = 30) were collected per colony were used as materials for qRT-PCR analyses. Independent-sample t-tests were performed to analyse the results using the SPSS 13.0 software. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01).