Dataset Information

Prevalence and population genetics of the emerging honey bee pathogen DWV in Chinese apiculture.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees are agriculturally important, both as pollinators and by providing products such as honey. The sustainability of beekeeping is at risk through factors of global change such as habitat loss, as well as through the spread of infectious diseases. In China and other parts of Asia, beekeepers rely both on native Apis cerana and non-native Apis mellifera, putting bee populations at particular risk of disease emergence from multi-host pathogens. Indeed, two important honey bee parasites have emerged from East Asian honey bees, the mite Varroa destructor and the microsporidian Nosema ceranae. As V. destructor vectors viral bee diseases, we investigated whether another key bee pathogen, Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), may also have originated in East Asian honey bee populations. We use a large-scale survey of apiaries across China to investigate the prevalence and seasonality of DWV in managed A. mellifera and A. cerana colonies, showing that DWV-A prevalence was higher in A. mellifera, with a seasonal spike in prevalence in autumn and winter. Using phylogenetic and population genetic approaches, we show that while China and East Asian DWV isolates show comparatively high levels of genetic diversity, these bee populations are not a source for the current global DWV epidemic.

SUBMITTER: Diao Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6700284 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prevalence and population genetics of the emerging honey bee pathogen DWV in Chinese apiculture.

Diao Qingyun Q Yang Dahe D Zhao Hongxia H Deng Shuai S Wang Xinling X Hou Chunsheng C Wilfert Lena L

Scientific reports 20190819 1

Honey bees are agriculturally important, both as pollinators and by providing products such as honey. The sustainability of beekeeping is at risk through factors of global change such as habitat loss, as well as through the spread of infectious diseases. In China and other parts of Asia, beekeepers rely both on native Apis cerana and non-native Apis mellifera, putting bee populations at particular risk of disease emergence from multi-host pathogens. Indeed, two important honey bee parasites have ...[more]

PMID: 31427723

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Project description:The impacts of invertebrate RNA virus population dynamics on virulence and infection outcomes are poorly understood. Deformed wing virus (DWV), the main viral pathogen of honey bees, negatively impacts bee health, which can lead to colony death. Despite previous reports on the reduction of DWV diversity following the arrival of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, the key DWV vector, we found high genetic diversity of DWV in infested United States honey bee colonies. Phylogenetic analysis showed that divergent US DWV genotypes are of monophyletic origin and were likely generated as a result of diversification after a genetic bottleneck. To investigate the population dynamics of this divergent DWV, we designed a series of novel infectious cDNA clones corresponding to coexisting DWV genotypes, thereby devising a reverse-genetics system for an invertebrate RNA virus quasispecies. Equal replication rates were observed for all clone-derived DWV variants in single infections. Surprisingly, individual clones replicated to the same high levels as their mixtures and even the parental highly diverse natural DWV population, suggesting that complementation between genotypes was not required to replicate to high levels. Mixed clone-derived infections showed a lack of strong competitive exclusion, suggesting that the DWV genotypes were adapted to coexist. Mutational and recombination events were observed across clone progeny, providing new insights into the forces that drive and constrain virus diversification. Accordingly, our results suggest that Varroa influences DWV dynamics by causing an initial selective sweep, which is followed by virus diversification fueled by negative frequency-dependent selection for new genotypes. We suggest that this selection might reflect the ability of rare lineages to evade host defenses, specifically antiviral RNA interference (RNAi). In support of this hypothesis, we show that RNAi induced against one DWV strain is less effective against an alternate strain from the same population.

Dataset Information

Prevalence and population genetics of the emerging honey bee pathogen DWV in Chinese apiculture.

Publications

Prevalence and population genetics of the emerging honey bee pathogen DWV in Chinese apiculture.

Similar Datasets

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