Ecol Evol. 2011 Oct;1(2):201-17. doi: 10.1002/ece3.21.
The honey bee is a major insect used for pollination of many commercial crops worldwide. Although the use of honey bees for pollination can disrupt the habitat, the effects on their physiology have never been determined. Recently, honey bee colonies have often collapsed when introduced in greenhouses for pollination in Japan. Thus, suppressing colony collapses and maintaining the number of worker bees in the colonies is essential for successful long-term pollination in greenhouses and recycling of honey bee colonies. To understand the physiological states of honey bees used for long-term pollination in greenhouses, we characterized their gene expression profiles by microarray. We found that the greenhouse environment changes the gene expression profiles and induces immune-suppression and oxidative stress in honey bees. In fact, the increase of the number of Nosema microsporidia and protein carbonyl content was observed in honey bees during pollination in greenhouses. Thus, honey bee colonies are likely to collapse during pollination in greenhouses when heavily infested with pathogens. Degradation of honey bee habitat by changing the outside environment of the colony, during pollination services for example, imposes negative impacts on honey bees. Thus, worldwide use of honey bees for crop pollination in general could be one of reasons for the decline of managed honey bee colonies.
蜜蜂是一种重要的昆虫，被广泛用于全球许多商业作物的授粉。尽管蜜蜂用于授粉可能会破坏栖息地，但它们对生理学的影响从未被确定过。最近，在日本，为了在温室中进行授粉而引入的蜜蜂群经常崩溃。因此，抑制蜂群崩溃和维持蜂群中的工蜂数量对于温室中成功的长期授粉和蜜蜂群的循环利用至关重要。为了了解用于温室长期授粉的蜜蜂的生理状态，我们通过微阵列对其基因表达谱进行了表征。我们发现，温室环境改变了基因表达谱，并诱导蜜蜂的免疫抑制和氧化应激。事实上，在温室中授粉期间，我们观察到蜜蜂中 Nosema 微孢子虫的数量增加和蛋白质羰基含量增加。因此，当蜜蜂群受到严重感染时，它们在温室授粉期间很可能会崩溃。通过改变蜂巢外部环境（例如授粉服务）来破坏蜜蜂栖息地，会对蜜蜂产生负面影响。因此，全球范围内普遍使用蜜蜂进行作物授粉可能是管理蜜蜂群减少的原因之一。
