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Engineered symbionts activate honey bee immunity and limit pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees are essential pollinators threatened by colony losses linked to the spread of parasites and pathogens. Here, we report a new approach for manipulating bee gene expression and protecting bee health. We engineered a symbiotic bee gut bacterium, Snodgrassella alvi, to induce eukaryotic RNA interference (RNAi) immune responses. We show that engineered S. alvi can stably recolonize bees and produce double-stranded RNA to activate RNAi and repress host gene expression, thereby altering bee physiology, behavior, and growth. We used this approach to improve bee survival after a viral challenge, and we show that engineered S. alvi can kill parasitic Varroa mites by triggering the mite RNAi response. This symbiont-mediated RNAi approach is a tool for studying bee functional genomics and potentially for safeguarding bee health.

SUBMITTER: Leonard SP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7556694 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Engineered symbionts activate honey bee immunity and limit pathogens.

Leonard Sean P SP Powell J Elijah JE Perutka Jiri J Geng Peng P Heckmann Luke C LC Horak Richard D RD Davies Bryan W BW Ellington Andrew D AD Barrick Jeffrey E JE Moran Nancy A NA

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20200130 6477

Honey bees are essential pollinators threatened by colony losses linked to the spread of parasites and pathogens. Here, we report a new approach for manipulating bee gene expression and protecting bee health. We engineered a symbiotic bee gut bacterium, <i>Snodgrassella alvi</i>, to induce eukaryotic RNA interference (RNAi) immune responses. We show that engineered <i>S. alvi</i> can stably recolonize bees and produce double-stranded RNA to activate RNAi and repress host gene expression, thereby ...[more]

PMID: 32001655

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