scholarly journals Response of adult honey bees treated in larval stage with prochloraz to infection with Nosema ceranae

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uros Glavinic ◽  
Tanja Tesovnik ◽  
Jevrosima Stevanovic ◽  
Minja Zorc ◽  
Ivanka Cizelj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Larval Stage ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Nosema Ceranae ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Colony Losses ◽  
Altered Expression ◽  
Immune Gene Expression ◽  
Bee Colony

Among numerous factors that contribute to honey bee colony losses and problems in beekeeping, pesticides and Nosema ceranae have been often reported. In contrast to insecticides, whose effects on bees have been widely studied, fungicides did not attract considerable attention. Prochloraz, an imidazole fungicide widely used in agriculture, was detected in honey and pollen stored inside hives and has been already proven to alter immune gene expression of honey bees at different developmental stages. The aim of this study was to simulate the realistic conditions of migratory beekeeping, where colonies, both uninfected and infected with N. ceranae, are frequently transported to the vicinity of crop fields treated with prochloraz. We investigated the combined effect of prochloraz and N. ceranae on honey bees that faced fungicide during the larval stage through food consumption and microsporidium infection afterwards. The most pronounced changes in gene expression were observed in newly emerged Nosema-free bees originating from colonies previously contaminated with prochloraz. As exclusively upregulation was registered, prochloraz alone most likely acts as a challenge that induces activation of immune pathways in newly emerged bees. The combination of both stressors (prochloraz and Nosema infection) exerted the greatest effect on six-day-old honey bees. Among ten genes with significantly altered expression, half were upregulated and half downregulated. N. ceranae as a sole stressor had the weakest effects on immune gene expression modulation with only three genes significantly dysregulated. In conclusion, food contaminated with prochloraz consumed in larval stage could present a threat to the development of immunity and detoxification mechanisms in honey bees.

scholarly journals The Role of Pathogen Dynamics and Immune Gene Expression in the Survival of Feral Honey Bees

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chauncy Hinshaw ◽  
Kathleen C. Evans ◽  
Cristina Rosa ◽  
Margarita M. López-Uribe
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Immune Genes ◽  
Immune Gene Expression ◽  
Pathogen Dynamics ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Overwintering Survival ◽  
Bee Colonies

Studies of the ecoimmunology of feral organisms can provide valuable insight into how host–pathogen dynamics change as organisms transition from human-managed conditions back into the wild. Honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) offer an ideal system to investigate these questions as colonies of these social insects often escape management and establish in the wild. While managed honey bee colonies have low probability of survival in the absence of disease treatments, feral colonies commonly survive in the wild, where pathogen pressures are expected to be higher due to the absence of disease treatments. Here, we investigate the role of pathogen infections [Deformed wing virus (DWV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV), and Nosema ceranae] and immune gene expression (defensin-1, hymenoptaecin, pgrp-lc, pgrp-s2, argonaute-2, vago) in the survival of feral and managed honey bee colonies. We surveyed a total of 25 pairs of feral and managed colonies over a 2-year period (2017–2018), recorded overwintering survival, and measured pathogen levels and immune gene expression using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Our results showed that feral colonies had higher levels of DWV but it was variable over time compared to managed colonies. Higher pathogen levels were associated with increased immune gene expression, with feral colonies showing higher expression in five out of the six examined immune genes for at least one sampling period. Further analysis revealed that differential expression of the genes hymenoptaecin and vago increased the odds of overwintering survival in managed and feral colonies. Our results revealed that feral colonies express immune genes at higher levels in response to high pathogen burdens, providing evidence for the role of feralization in altering pathogen landscapes and host immune responses.

scholarly journals Short communication: Survival of honey bees (Apis mellifera) infected with Crithidia mellificae (Langridge and McGhee: ATCC® 30254™) in the presence of Nosema ceranae

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. e05SC02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Higes ◽  
Cristina Rodríguez-García ◽  
Tamara Gómez-Moracho ◽  
Aranzazu Meana ◽  
Carolina Bartolomé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Post Infection ◽  
Reference Strain ◽  
Nosema Ceranae ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Pathological Effect ◽  
Colony Losses ◽  
Bee Colony ◽  
Honey Bee Colony Losses

Crithidia mellificae, a trypanosomatid parasite of Apis mellifera, has been proposed to be one of the pathogens responsible for the serious honey bee colony losses produced worldwide in the last decade, either alone or in association with Nosema ceranae. Since this pathogenic effect contradicts the results of the experimental infections originally performed by Langridge and McGhee nearly 40 years ago, we investigated the potential linkage of this protozoan with colony decline under laboratory conditions. Nosema-free and trypanosomatid-free honey bees from three different colonies were experimentally infected with fresh C. mellificae spheroid forms (reference strain ATCC30254), with N. ceranae fresh spores and with both parasites at the same time. Replicate cages were kept at 27 °C and used to analyse survival. C. mellificae spheroid forms did not reduce significantly the survival of the worker bees (64.5% at 30 days post-infection vs. 77.8% for the uninfected bees used as controls; differences were non statistically significant) under these experimental conditions. In contrast, the cages infected with N. ceranae exhibited higher rates of mortality from the 20th day post-infection onwards, irrespective of the presence of C. mellificae, suggesting that the spheroid forms of the latter have no pathological effect on A. mellifera.

Immune gene expression in developing honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) simultaneously exposed to imidacloprid and Varroa destructor in laboratory conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 730-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Tesovnik ◽  
Minja Zorc ◽  
Aleš Gregorc ◽  
Timothy Rinehart ◽  
John Adamczyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Varroa Destructor ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Immune Gene Expression ◽  
Laboratory Conditions

scholarly journals Gut and Colony Microbiota of Honey Bees: Social Immunity and Opportunism Overwinter

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk E. Anderson ◽  
Patrick Maes
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Social Immunity ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Opportunistic Disease ◽  
Bee Colony ◽  
Cost Benefit Ratio ◽  
Colony Loss

Abstract Overwintering is a major contributor to honey bee colony loss and involves factors that influence disease susceptibility. Honey bees possess a secretory head gland that interfaces with the extended social environment on many levels. With the coming of winter, colonies produce a long-lived (diutinus) worker phenotype that survives until environmental conditions improve. We used a known-age worker cohort to investigate microbiome integrity and social gene expression of diutinus workers overwinter. We provide additional context by contrasting host-microbial interactions from warm outdoor and cold indoor overwintering environments. Our results provide the first evidence that social immune gene expression is associated with diutinus bees, and highlight the midgut as a target of opportunistic disease overwinter. Host microbial interactions suggest opportunistic disease progression and resistance in diutinus workers, but susceptibility to opportunistic disease in younger workers that emerged during the winter, including increases in Enterobacteriaceae, fungal load and bacterial diversity abundance. The results are consistent with increased social immunity overwinter, including host associations with the colony microbiota, and a social immune response by long-lived diutinus workers to combat microbial opportunism. The cost/benefit ratio associated with limited expression of the diutinus phenotype may be a strong determinant of colony survival overwinter.

scholarly journals Effects of host age on susceptibility to infection and immune gene expression in honey bee queens (Apis mellifera) inoculated with Nosema ceranae

Apidologie ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veeranan Chaimanee ◽  
Panuwan Chantawannakul ◽  
Yanping Chen ◽  
Jay D. Evans ◽  
Jeffery S. Pettis
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Nosema Ceranae ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Host Age ◽  
Susceptibility To Infection ◽  
Immune Gene Expression ◽  
Honey Bee Queens

Impacts of Different Winter Storage Conditions on the Physiology of Diutinus Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon K Hopkins ◽  
Priyadarshini Chakrabarti ◽  
Hannah M Lucas ◽  
Ramesh R Sagili ◽  
Walter S Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
The United States ◽  
Storage Conditions ◽  
Colony Losses ◽  
Bee Colony ◽  
Causative Factors ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor Environments ◽  
Physiological Markers ◽  
Honey Bee Colony Losses

Abstract Global decline in insect pollinators, especially bees, have resulted in extensive research into understanding the various causative factors and formulating mitigative strategies. For commercial beekeepers in the United States, overwintering honey bee colony losses are significant, requiring tactics to overwinter bees in conditions designed to minimize such losses. This is especially important as overwintered honey bees are responsible for colony expansion each spring, and overwintered bees must survive in sufficient numbers to nurse the spring brood and forage until the new ‘replacement’ workers become fully functional. In this study, we examined the physiology of overwintered (diutinus) bees following various overwintering storage conditions. Important physiological markers, i.e., head proteins and abdominal lipid contents were higher in honey bees that overwintered in controlled indoor storage facilities, compared with bees held outdoors through the winter months. Our findings provide new insights into the physiology of honey bees overwintered in indoor and outdoor environments and have implications for improved beekeeping management.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document