Tropilaelaps mercedesae parasitism changes behavior and gene expression in honey bee workers.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gao J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8266070 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The number of managed honey bee colonies has considerably decreased in many developed countries in recent years and ectoparasitic mites are considered as major threats to honey bee colonies and health. However, their general biology remains poorly understood. We sequenced the genome of Tropilaelaps mercedesae, the prevalent ectoparasitic mite infesting honey bees in Asia, and predicted 15 190 protein-coding genes that were well supported by the mite transcriptomes and proteomic data. Although amino acid substitutions have been accelerated within the conserved core genes of two mites, T. mercedesae and Metaseiulus occidentalis, T. mercedesae has undergone the least gene family expansion and contraction between the seven arthropods we tested. The number of sensory system genes has been dramatically reduced, but T. mercedesae contains all gene sets required to detoxify xenobiotics. T. mercedesae is closely associated with a symbiotic bacterium (Rickettsiella grylli-like) and Deformed Wing Virus, the most prevalent honey bee virus. T. mercedesae has a very specialized life history and habitat as the ectoparasitic mite strictly depends on the honey bee inside a stable colony. Thus, comparison of the genome and transcriptome sequences with those of a tick and free-living mites has revealed the specific features of the genome shaped by interaction with the honey bee and colony environment. Genome and transcriptome sequences of T. mercedesae, as well as Varroa destructor (another globally prevalent ectoparasitic mite of honey bee), not only provide insights into the mite biology, but may also help to develop measures to control the most serious pests of the honey bee.
| S-EPMC5467014 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Tropilaelaps mercedesae, one of the most devastating parasitic mites of honey bee Apis mellifera hosts, is a major threat to honey products by causing severe damage to honey bee colonies. Here, we recorded injury numbers caused by T. mercedesae to different body parts of the larval, pupal, and crippled adult stages of honey bee A. mellifera. We evaluated the relationship between infestation rate and injury numbers per bee for both larvae and pupae. We also noted the total bee numbers per beehive and examined the relationship between the infestation rate and population size. T. mercedesae infested all developmental stages of honey bees, with the highest injury numbers in the abdomens of bee pupae and the antennas of crippled adult bees. Although larvae received more injury numbers than pupae, both infestation rate and injury numbers decreased as the larval stage progressed to the pupal stage. The infestation rate increased as the population size per beehive decreased. This study provided new perspectives to the understanding of changes in the effects of T. mercedesae infestations on different developmental stages of honey bees. It also showed useful baseline information for screening honey bee stock that might have high defensive behaviors against mite infestation.
| S-EPMC10135255 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Early life stressors can affect aging and life expectancy in positive or negative ways. Individuals can adjust their behavior and molecular physiology based on early life experiences but relatively few studies have connected such mechanisms to demographic patterns in social organisms. Sociality buffers individuals from environmental influences and it is unclear how much early life stress affects later life history. Workers of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) were exposed to two stressors, Varroa parasitism and Paraquat exposure, early in life. Consequences were measured at the molecular, behavioral, and demographic level. While treatments did not significantly affect levels of oxidative damage, expression of select genes, and titers of the common deformed wing virus, most of these measures were affected by age. Some of the age effects, such as declining levels of deformed wing virus and oxidative damage, were opposite to our predictions but may be explained by demographic selection. Further analyses suggested some influences of worker behavior on mortality and indicated weak treatment effects on behavior. The latter effects were inconsistent among the two experiments. However, mortality rate was consistently reduced by Varroa mite stress during development. Thus, mortality was more responsive to early life stress than our other response variables. The lack of treatment effects on these measures may be due to the social organization of honey bees that buffers the individual from the impact of stressful developmental conditions.
| S-EPMC5346452 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSocial insects, such as honey bees, use molecular, physiological and behavioral responses to combat pathogens and parasites. The honey bee genome contains all of the canonical insect immune response pathways, and several studies have demonstrated that pathogens can activate expression of immune effectors. Honey bees also use behavioral responses, termed social immunity, to collectively defend their hives from pathogens and parasites. These responses include hygienic behavior (where workers remove diseased brood) and allo-grooming (where workers remove ectoparasites from nestmates). We have previously demonstrated that immunostimulation causes changes in the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of workers, which results in altered worker-worker social interactions. Thus, cuticular hydrocarbons may enable workers to identify sick nestmates, and adjust their behavior in response. Here, we test the specificity of behavioral, chemical and genomic responses to immunostimulation by challenging workers with a panel of different immune stimulants (saline, Sephadex beads and Gram-negative bacteria E. coli).ResultsWhile only bacteria-injected bees elicited altered behavioral responses from healthy nestmates compared to controls, all treatments resulted in significant changes in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles. Immunostimulation caused significant changes in expression of hundreds of genes, the majority of which have not been identified as members of the canonical immune response pathways. Furthermore, several new candidate genes that may play a role in cuticular hydrocarbon biosynthesis were identified. Effects of immune challenge expression of several genes involved in immune response, cuticular hydrocarbon biosynthesis, and the Notch signaling pathway were confirmed using quantitative real-time PCR. Finally, we identified common genes regulated by pathogen challenge in honey bees and other insects.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that honey bee genomic responses to immunostimulation are substantially broader than the previously identified canonical immune response pathways, and may mediate the behavioral changes associated with social immunity by orchestrating changes in chemical signaling. These studies lay the groundwork for future research into the genomic responses of honey bees to native honey bee parasites and pathogens.
| S-EPMC3483235 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background The number of managed honey bee colonies has considerably decreased in many developed countries in recent years and the ectoparasitic mites are considered as major threats to honey bee colonies and health. However, their general biology remains poorly understood. Results We sequenced the genome and transcriptomes of Tropilaelaps mercedesae, the prevalent ectoparasitic mite infesting honey bees in Asia. The de novo assembled genome sequence (353 Mb) represents 53% of the estimated genome size because of the compression of repetitive sequences; nevertheless, we predicted 15,190 protein-coding genes which were well supported by the mite transcriptomes and proteomic dataes. Although amino acid substitutions have been accelerated within the conserved core genes in of two mites, T. mercedesae and Metaseiulus occidentalis, T. mercedesae has undergone the least gene family expansion and contraction between the seven arthropods we tested. The number of sensory system genes has been dramatically reduced; meanwhile, T. mercedesae may have evolved a specialized cuticle and water homeostasis mechanisms, as well as epigenetic control of gene expression for ploidy compensation between males and females., and water homeostasis. T. mercedesae contains all gene sets required to detoxify xenobiotics, enabling it to be miticide resistant. T. mercedesae is closely associated with a symbiotic bacteriuma (Rickettsiella grylli-like) and DWVdeformed wing virus (DWV), the most prevalent honey bee virus. The presence of DWV in both adult male and female mites was also confirmed by the proteomic analysis. Conclusions T. mercedesae has a very specialized life history and habitat as the ectoparasitic mite strictly dependsing on the honey bee inside the a stable colony. Thus, comparison of the genome and transcriptome sequences with those of a tick and free-living mites and tick has revealed the specific features of the genome shaped by interaction with the honey bee and colony environment. T. mercedesae, as well as Varroa destructor, genome and transcriptome sequences not only provide insights into the mite biology, but may also help to develop measures to control the most serious pests of the honey bee.
2017-01-02 | PXD004997 | Pride
Project description:Behavior is among the most dynamic animal phenotypes, modulated by a variety of internal and external stimuli. Behavioral differences are associated with large-scale changes in gene expression, but little is known about how these changes are regulated. Here we show how a transcription factor (TF), ultraspiracle (usp; the insect homolog of the Retinoid X Receptor), working in complex transcriptional networks, can regulate behavioral plasticity and associated changes in gene expression. We first show that RNAi knockdown of USP in honey bee abdominal fat bodies delayed the transition from working in the hive (primarily "nursing" brood) to foraging outside. We then demonstrate through transcriptomics experiments that USP induced many maturation-related transcriptional changes in the fat bodies by mediating transcriptional responses to juvenile hormone. These maturation-related transcriptional responses to USP occurred without changes in USP's genomic binding sites, as revealed by ChIP-chip. Instead, behaviorally related gene expression is likely determined by combinatorial interactions between USP and other TFs whose cis-regulatory motifs were enriched at USP's binding sites. Many modules of JH- and maturation-related genes were co-regulated in both the fat body and brain, predicting that usp and cofactors influence shared transcriptional networks in both of these maturation-related tissues. Our findings demonstrate how "single gene effects" on behavioral plasticity can involve complex transcriptional networks, in both brain and peripheral tissues.
| S-EPMC3315457 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A green fluorescence protein (GFP)-derived dsRNA (dsRNA-GFP) has been used as an exogenous control for Apis mellifera RNAi assays by multiple research groups. Its sequence does not share any significant homology with any known honey bee genes. Although dsRNA-GFP is not expected to trigger an RNAi response in treated bees, undesirable effects on gene expression, pupal pigmentation or developmental timing have been routinely observed. To better understand the multiple molecular and phenotypic effects of dsRNA-GFP in honey bees and to evaluate its use as a control for RNAi studies, we examined the impact of dsRNA-GFP on global gene expression patterns in developing workers. We found that dsRNA-GFP causes large-scale changes in gene expression associated with multiple biological processes. Furthermore, dsRNA-GFP exposure tended to preferentially decrease, rather than increase, expression of genes compared to controls.
2013-01-10 | GSE41004 | GEO
Project description:Recent honey bee colony losses, particularly during the winter, have been shown to be associated with the presence of both ectoparasitic mites and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). Whilst the role of Varroa destructor mites as a viral vector is well established, the role of Tropilaelaps mercedesae mites in viral transmission has not been fully investigated. In this study, we tested the effects that V. destructor and T. mercedesae infestation have on fluctuation of the DWV copy number and alteration of the virus variants in honey bees by characterizing individual pupae and their infesting mites. We observed that both mite species were associated with increased viral copy number in honey bee pupae. We found a positive correlation between DWV copy number in pupae and copy number in infesting mites, and the same DWV type A variant was present in either low or high copy number in both honey bee pupae and infesting V. destructor. These data also suggest that variant diversity is similar between honey bee pupae and the mites that infest them. These results support a previously proposed hypothesis that DWV suppresses the honey bee immune system when virus copy number reaches a specific threshold, promoting greater replication.
| S-EPMC5572262 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Many insects show polyphenisms, or alternative morphologies, which are based on differential gene expression rather than genetic polymorphism. Queens and workers are alternative forms of the adult female honey bee and represent one of the best known examples of insect polyphenism. Hormonal regulation of caste determination in honey bees has been studied in detail, but little is known about the proximate molecular mechanisms underlying this process, or any other such polyphenism. We report the success of a molecular-genetic approach for studying queen- and worker-specific gene expression in the development of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Numerous genes appear to be differentially expressed between the two castes. Seven differentially expressed loci described here belong to at least five distinctly different evolutionary and functional groups. Two are particularly promising as potential regulators of caste differentiation. One is homologous to a widespread class of proteins that bind lipids and other hydrophobic ligands, including retinoic acid. The second locus shows sequence similarity to a DNA-binding domain in the Ets family of transcription factors. The remaining loci appear to be involved with downstream changes inherent to queen- or worker-specific developmental pathways. Caste determination in honey bees is typically thought of as primarily queen determination; our results make it clear that the process involves specific activation of genes in workers as well as in queens.
| S-EPMC21902 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Anthropogenic changes create evolutionarily novel environments that present opportunities for emerging diseases, potentially changing the balance between host and pathogen. Honey bees provide essential pollination services, but intensification and globalization of honey bee management has coincided with increased pathogen pressure, primarily due to a parasitic mite/virus complex. Here, we investigated how honey bee individual and group phenotypes are altered by a virus of concern, Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). Using automated and manual behavioral monitoring of IAPV-inoculated individuals, we find evidence for pathogen manipulation of worker behavior by IAPV, and reveal that this effect depends on social context; that is, within versus between colony interactions. Experimental inoculation reduced social contacts between honey bee colony members, suggesting an adaptive host social immune response to diminish transmission. Parallel analyses with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-immunostimulated bees revealed these behaviors are part of a generalized social immune defensive response. Conversely, inoculated bees presented to groups of bees from other colonies experienced reduced aggression compared with dsRNA-immunostimulated bees, facilitating entry into susceptible colonies. This reduction was associated with a shift in cuticular hydrocarbons, the chemical signatures used by bees to discriminate colony members from intruders. These responses were specific to IAPV infection, suggestive of pathogen manipulation of the host. Emerging bee pathogens may thus shape host phenotypes to increase transmission, a strategy especially well-suited to the unnaturally high colony densities of modern apiculture. These findings demonstrate how anthropogenic changes could affect arms races between human-managed hosts and their pathogens to potentially affect global food security.
| S-EPMC7229666 | biostudies-literature