Dataset Information

Inducible versus constitutive social immunity: examining effects of colony infection on glucose oxidase and defensin-1 production in honeybees.

ABSTRACT: Honeybees use a variety of defence mechanisms to reduce disease infection and spread throughout the colony. Many of these defences rely on the collective action of multiple individuals to prevent, reduce or eradicate pathogens-often referred to as 'social immunity'. Glucose oxidase (GOX) and some antimicrobial peptides (e.g. defensin-1 or Def1) are secreted by the hypopharyngeal gland of adult bees on larval food for their antiseptic properties. Because workers secrete these compounds to protect larvae, they have been used as 'biomarkers' for social immunity. The aim of this study was to investigate if GOX and Def1 are induced after pathogen exposure to determine whether its production by workers is the result of a collective effort to protect the brood and colony in response to a pathogen challenge. Specifically, we quantified GOX and Def1 in honeybee adults before and after colony-level bacterial infection by American foulbrood ((AFB), Paenibacillus larvae). Overall, our results indicate that levels of GOX and Def1 are not induced in response to pathogenic infections. We therefore conclude that GOX and Def1 are highly constitutive and co-opted as mechanisms of social immunity, and these factors should be considered when investigating immunity at the individual and colony level in social insects.

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Uribe MM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5451834 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Inducible versus constitutive social immunity: examining effects of colony infection on glucose oxidase and defensin-1 production in honeybees.

López-Uribe Margarita M MM Fitzgerald Andrea A Simone-Finstrom Michael M

Royal Society open science 20170531 5

Honeybees use a variety of defence mechanisms to reduce disease infection and spread throughout the colony. Many of these defences rely on the collective action of multiple individuals to prevent, reduce or eradicate pathogens-often referred to as 'social immunity'. Glucose oxidase (GOX) and some antimicrobial peptides (e.g. defensin-1 or Def1) are secreted by the hypopharyngeal gland of adult bees on larval food for their antiseptic properties. Because workers secrete these compounds to protect ...[more]

PMID: 28573033

Similar Datasets

Project description:Amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside, is found in the nectar and pollen of almond trees, as well as in a variety of other crops, such as cherries, nectarines, apples and others. It is inevitable that western honeybees (Apis mellifera) consistently consume amygdalin during almond pollination season because almond crops are almost exclusively pollinated by honeybees. This study tests the effects of a field-relevant concentration of amygdalin on honeybee microbes and the activities of key honeybee genes. We executed a two-month field trial providing sucrose solutions with or without amygdalin ad libitum to free-flying honeybee colonies. We collected adult worker bees at four time points and used RNA sequencing technology and our HoloBee database to assess global changes in microbes and honeybee transcripts. Our hypothesis was that amygdalin will negatively affect bee microbes and possibly immune gene regulation. Using a log2 fold-change cutoff at two and intraday comparisons, we show no large change of bacterial counts, fungal counts or key bee immune gene transcripts, due to amygdalin treatment in relation to the control. However, relatively large titer decreases in the amygdalin treatment relative to the control were found for several viruses. Chronic bee paralysis virus levels had a sharp decrease (-14.4) with titers then remaining less than the control, Black queen cell virus titers were lower at three time points (<-2) and Deformed wing virus titers were lower at two time points (<-6) in amygdalin-fed compared to sucrose-fed colonies. Titers of Lotmaria passim were lower in the treatment group at three of the four dates (<-4). In contrast, Sacbrood virus had two dates with relative increases in its titers (>2). Overall, viral titers appeared to fluctuate more so than bacteria, as observed by highly inconstant patterns between treatment and control and throughout the season. Our results suggest that amygdalin consumption may reduce several honeybee viruses without affecting other microbes or colony-level expression of immune genes.

Dataset Information

Inducible versus constitutive social immunity: examining effects of colony infection on glucose oxidase and defensin-1 production in honeybees.

Publications

Inducible versus constitutive social immunity: examining effects of colony infection on glucose oxidase and defensin-1 production in honeybees.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets