Nosema ceranae, Fipronil and their combination compromise honey bee reproduction via changes in male physiology.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kairo G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5561069 | biostudies-other | 2017 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:Nosema ceranae, a newly introduced parasite of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, is contributing to worldwide colony losses. Other Nosema species, such as N. apis, tend to be associated with increased defecation and spread via a fecal-oral pathway, but because N. ceranae does not induce defecation, it may instead be spread via an oral-oral pathway. Cages that separated older infected bees from young uninfected bees were used to test whether N. ceranae can be spread during food exchange. When cages were separated by one screen, food could be passed between the older bees and the young bees, but when separated by two screens, food could not be passed between the two cages. Young uninfected bees were also kept isolated in cages, as a solitary control. After 4 days of exposure to the older bees, and 10 days to incubate infections, young bees were more likely to be infected in the 1-Screen Test treatment vs. the 2-Screen Test treatment (P=0.0097). Young bees fed by older bees showed a 13-fold increase in mean infection level relative to young bees not fed by older bees (1-Screen Test 40.8%; 2-Screen Test 3.4%; Solo Control 2.8%). Although fecal-oral transmission is still possible in this experimental design, oral-oral infectivity could help explain the rapid spread of N. ceranae worldwide.
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Project description:It is still not understood how honey bee parasite changes the gene expression to adapt to the host environment and how the host simultaneously responds to the parasite infection by modifying its own gene expression. To address this question, we studied a trypanosomatid, Lotmaria passim, which can be cultured in medium and inhabit the honey bee hindgut. We found that L. passim decreases mRNAs associated with protein translation, glycolysis, detoxification of radical oxygen species, and kinetoplast respiratory chain to adapt to the anaerobic and nutritionally poor honey bee hindgut during the infection. After the long term infection, the host appears to be in poor nutritional status, indicated by the increase and decrease of take-out and vitellogenin mRNAs, respectively. Simultaneous gene expression profiling of L. passim and honey bee during infection by dual RNA-seq provided insight into how both parasite and host modify their gene expressions.
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Project description:In this study we addressed whether the transcriptome profile in the honey bee brain is similar for two major parasites of honey bee, Varroa destructor and Nosema ceranae. Honey bees parasitized by these two parasites show accelerated behavioral maturation and deficiences in orientation and learning/memory that we hoped to characterized at the transcriptomic level.
2013-09-24 | GSE41109 | GEO
Project description:Apis cerana is the original host for Nosema ceranae, a widespread fungal parasite resulting in honey bee nosemosis, which leads to severe losses to the apiculture industry throughout the world. However, knowledge of N. ceranae infecting eastern honey bees is extremely limited. Currently, the mechanism underlying N. ceranae infection is still largely unknown. Based on our previously gained high-quality transcriptome datasets derived from N. ceranae spores (NcCK group), N. ceranae infecting Apis cerana cerana workers at seven days post inoculation (dpi) and 10 dpi (NcT1 and NcT2 groups), comparative transcriptomic investigation was conducted in this work, with a focus on virulence factor-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Microscopic observation showed that the midguts of A. c. cerana workers were effectively infected after inoculation with clean spores of N. ceranae. In total, 1411, 604, and 38 DEGs were identified from NcCK vs. NcT1, NcCK vs. NcT2, and NcT1 vs. NcT2 comparison groups. Venn analysis showed that 10 upregulated genes and nine downregulated ones were shared by the aforementioned comparison groups. The GO category indicated that these DEGs were involved in a series of functional terms relevant to biological process, cellular component, and molecular function such as metabolic process, cell part, and catalytic activity. Additionally, KEGG pathway analysis suggested that the DEGs were engaged in an array of pathways of great importance such as metabolic pathway, glycolysis, and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Furthermore, expression clustering analysis demonstrated that the majority of genes encoding virulence factors such as ricin B lectins and polar tube proteins displayed apparent upregulation, whereas a few virulence factor-associated genes such as hexokinase gene and 6-phosphofructokinase gene presented downregulation during the fungal infection. Finally, the expression trend of 14 DEGs was confirmed by RT-qPCR, validating the reliability of our transcriptome datasets. These results together demonstrated that an overall alteration of the transcriptome of N. ceranae occurred during the infection of A. c. cerana workers, and most of the virulence factor-related genes were induced to activation to promote the fungal invasion. Our findings not only lay a foundation for clarifying the molecular mechanism underlying N. ceranae infection of eastern honey bee workers and microsporidian-host interaction.
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Project description:In order to study the effects of Nosema ceranae infection on honey bee microRNA (miRNA) expression, we deep-sequenced honey bee miRNAs daily across a full 6-day parasite reproduction cycle. Seventeen miRNAs were differentially expressed in honey bees infected by N. ceranae that potentially target over 400 genes predicted to primarily involve ion binding, signaling, the nucleus, transmembrane transport, and DNA binding. Based on Enzyme Code analysis, nine biological pathways were identified by screening target genes against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, seven of which involved metabolism. Our results suggest that differentially expressed miRNAs regulate metabolism related genes of host honey bees in response to N. ceranae infection.
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Project description:Mating has profound effects on the physiology and behavior of female insects, and in honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens, these changes are permanent. Queens mate with multiple males during a brief period in their early adult lives, and shortly thereafter they initiate egg-laying. Furthermore, the pheromone profiles of mated queens differ from those of virgins, and these pheromones regulate many different aspects of worker behavior and colony organization. While it is clear that mating causes dramatic changes in queens, it is unclear if mating number has more subtle effects on queen physiology or queen-worker interactions; indeed, the effect of multiple matings on female insect physiology has not been broadly addressed. Because it is not possible to control the natural mating behavior of queens, we used instrumental insemination and compared queens inseminated with semen from either a single drone (single-drone inseminated, or SDI) or 10 drones (multi-drone inseminated, or MDI). We used observation hives to monitor attraction of workers to SDI or MDI queens in colonies, and cage studies to monitor the attraction of workers to virgin, SDI, and MDI queen mandibular gland extracts (the main source of queen pheromone). The chemical profiles of the mandibular glands of virgin, SDI, and MDI queens were characterized using GC-MS. Finally, we measured brain expression levels in SDI and MDI queens of a gene associated with phototaxis in worker honey bees (Amfor). Here, we demonstrate for the first time that insemination quantity significantly affects mandibular gland chemical profiles, queen-worker interactions, and brain gene expression. Further research will be necessary to elucidate the mechanistic bases for these effects: insemination volume, sperm and seminal protein quantity, and genetic diversity of the sperm may all be important factors contributing to this profound change in honey bee queen physiology, queen behavior, and social interactions in the colony.
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Project description:Vairimorpha (Nosema) ceranae is the most common eukaryotic gut pathogen in honey bees. Infection is typically chronic but may result in mortality. Gut microbiota is a factor that was recently noted for gut infectious disease development. Interestingly, studies identified positive, instead of negative, associations between core bacteria of honey bee microbiota and V. ceranae infection. To investigate the effects of the positive associations, we added isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO), a prebiotic sugar also found in honey, to enhance the positive associations, and we then investigated the infection and the gut microbiota alterations using qPCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that infected bees fed IMO had significantly higher V. ceranae spore counts but lower mortalities. In microbiota comparisons, V. ceranae infections alone significantly enhanced the overall microbiota population in the honey bee hindgut and feces; all monitored core bacteria significantly increased in the quantities but not all in the population ratios. The microbiota alterations caused by the infection were enhanced with IMO, and these alterations were similar to the differences found in bees that naturally have longer lifespans. Although our results did not clarify the causations of the positive associations between the infections and microbiota, the associations seemed to sustain the host survival and benefit the pathogen. Enhancing indigenous gut microbe to control nosema disease may result in an increment of bee populations but not the control of the pathogen. This interaction between the pathogen and microbiota potentially enhances disease transmission and avoids the social immune responses that diseased bees die prematurely to curb the disease from spreading within colonies.
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Project description:Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) is an important viral disease of adult bees which induces significant losses in honey bee colonies. Despite comprehensive research, only limited data is available from experimental infection for this virus. In the present study winter worker bees were experimentally infected in three different experiments. Bees were first inoculated per os (p/o) or per cuticle (p/c) with CBPV field strain M92/2010 in order to evaluate the virus replication in individual bees. In addition, potential synergistic effects of co-infection with CBPV and Nosema ceranae (N. ceranae) on bees were investigated. In total 558 individual bees were inoculated in small cages and data were analyzed using quantitative real time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR). Our results revealed successful replication of CBPV after p/o inoculation, while it was less effective when bees were inoculated p/c. Dead bees harbored about 1,000 times higher copy numbers of the virus than live bees. Co-infection of workers with CBPV and N. ceranae using either method of virus inoculation (p/c or p/o) showed increased replication ability for CBPV. In the third experiment the effect of inoculation on bee mortality was evaluated. The highest level of bee mortality was observed in a group of bees inoculated with CBPV p/o, followed by a group of workers simultaneously inoculated with CBPV and N. ceranae p/o, followed by the group inoculated with CBPV p/c and the group with only N. ceranae p/o. The experimental infection with CBPV showed important differences after p/o or p/c inoculation in winter bees, while simultaneous infection with CBPV and N. ceranae suggesting a synergistic effect after inoculation.
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Project description:The queens of eusocial bees, ants and wasps mate only during a very short period early in life and males therefore produce ejaculates consisting of large numbers of high quality sperm. Such extreme selection for high fecundity resulted in males investing minimally into their somatic survival, including their immune system. However, if susceptible males are unable to protect their reproductive tissue from infections, they compromise queen fitness if they transfer pathogens during mating. We used the honey bee Apis mellifera and investigated the course of infection of the sexually transmitted pathogen Nosema apis. We predicted that honey bee males are susceptible but protect their reproductive tissues from infections. We investigated the effects of N. apis infections on the midgut, the accessory glands and the accessory testes and quantified the consequences of infection on male survival and fecundity. We found that N. apis is able to infect males, and as infections progressed, it significantly impacted fertility and survival in older males. Even though we confirm males to be able to minimize N. apis infections of their reproductive tissues, the parasite is present in ejaculates of older males. Consequently N. apis evolved alternative routes to successfully infect ejaculates and get sexually transmitted.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Bees are confronting several environmental challenges, including the intermingled effects of malnutrition and disease. Intuitively, pollen is the healthiest nutritional choice, however, commercial substitutes, such as Bee-Pro and MegaBee, are widely used. Herein we examined how feeding natural and artificial diets shapes transcription in the abdomen of the honey bee, and how transcription shifts in combination with Nosema parasitism. RESULTS:Gene ontology enrichment revealed that, compared with poor diet (carbohydrates [C]), bees fed pollen (P?>?C), Bee-Pro (B?>?C), and MegaBee (M?>?C) showed a broad upregulation of metabolic processes, especially lipids; however, pollen feeding promoted more functions, and superior proteolysis. The superiority of the pollen diet was also evident through the remarkable overexpression of vitellogenin in bees fed pollen instead of MegaBee or Bee-Pro. Upregulation of bioprocesses under carbohydrates feeding compared to pollen (C?>?P) provided a clear poor nutritional status, uncovering stark expression changes that were slight or absent relatively to Bee-Pro (C?>?B) or MegaBee (C?>?M). Poor diet feeding (C?>?P) induced starvation response genes and hippo signaling pathway, while it repressed growth through different mechanisms. Carbohydrate feeding (C?>?P) also elicited 'adult behavior', and developmental processes suggesting transition to foraging. Finally, it altered the 'circadian rhythm', reflecting the role of this mechanism in the adaptation to nutritional stress in mammals. Nosema-infected bees fed pollen compared to carbohydrates (PN?>?CN) upheld certain bioprocesses of uninfected bees (P?>?C). Poor nutritional status was more apparent against pollen (CN?>?PN) than Bee-Pro (CN?>?BN) or MegaBee (CN?>?MN). Nosema accentuated the effects of malnutrition since more starvation-response genes and stress response mechanisms were upregulated in CN?>?PN compared to C?>?P. The bioprocess 'Macromolecular complex assembly' was also enriched in CN?>?PN, and involved genes associated with human HIV and/or influenza, thus providing potential candidates for bee-Nosema interactions. Finally, the enzyme Duox emerged as essential for guts defense in bees, similarly to Drosophila. CONCLUSIONS:These results provide evidence of the superior nutritional status of bees fed pollen instead of artificial substitutes in terms of overall health, even in the presence of a pathogen.
| S-EPMC6106827 | biostudies-literature