麻豆淫院

Montana State University-led research finds that bees with deformed wing virus flew shorter distances, whereas bees with sacbrood virus flew greater distances at higher speeds.

Most honey bee鈥搃nfecting viruses are picornaviruses, such as deformed wing virus (DWV) and sacbrood virus (SBV), which were named based on the morphological symptoms. Bees can often harbor very high virus loads without presenting any morphological symptoms.

Colony deaths have been associated with viruses. High annual honey bee losses in North America and some European countries are raising food security concerns as bees are the main pollinators of agricultural crops. Without the bees, humans could face a colony collapse of their own.

Previous studies have examined pathogens and flight or foraging using flight mills, entrance counters, and tagged bees. Quantitative impacts of individual and mixed virus infections on flight distance and coinfection effects have remained uncharacterized.

In the study, "Inapparent virus infections differentially affect honey bee flight," in Science Advances, researchers measured flight performance to assess the impact of covert virus infections on honey bee health.

Honey bees for the study (n = 240) came from five independent experiments with bees from different colonies maintained on Montana State University's Horticulture Farm. Honey bees were either mock or virus-infected, using different doses to establish a range of infection levels observed in natural sublethal infections.

At 72 hours postinfection, four-day-old bees flew on a flight mill that recorded distance, duration, and speed. Pathogen-specific PCR screened mock-infected samples, qPCR quantified DWV and SBV in all individuals and RNA was isolated from abdomens as the most representative of whole bee data. Gene expression assays measured heat shock protein 90 and octopamine 尾-2 receptor, and a subset received octopamine coinjection with DWV.

DWV abundance negatively correlated with flight distance in bees lacking detectable SBV. Uninfected bees flew an average of 58.4 m, bees with low DWV flew 21.9 m, and bees with high DWV flew 14.0 m.

Models confirmed a positive relationship between SBV and distance. Model predictions indicated 49% shorter distance with high DWV levels and 53% further with high SBV levels; coinfected bees at moderate levels were predicted to fly 35 m compared to 32 m for uninfected bees.

Average speed did not appreciably change with DWV and increased with SBV. Peak speed decreased with DWV and increased with SBV. Active flight durations showed no detectable differences with DWV, SBV, or total virus levels.

Heat shock protein 90 expression was positively associated with total virus abundance in coinfected bees across three experiments.

Findings indicate implications across organismal, colony, and the greater ecosystem. Study authors report that DWV infections may hinder the foraging capacity of the colony, resulting in less food and increasing the chances of colony death due to nutritional stress, and that bee-infecting viruses can be shared between sympatric species via floral resources.

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