Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 5;8(9):e73429. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073429. eCollection 2013.
The ongoing decline of honey bee health worldwide is a serious economic and ecological concern. One major contributor to the decline are pathogens, including several honey bee viruses. However, information is limited on the biology of bee viruses and molecular interactions with their hosts. An experimental protocol to test these systems was developed, using injections of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) into honey bee pupae reared ex-situ under laboratory conditions. The infected pupae developed pronounced but variable patterns of disease. Symptoms varied from complete cessation of development with no visual evidence of disease to rapid darkening of a part or the entire body. Considerable differences in IAPV titer dynamics were observed, suggesting significant variation in resistance to IAPV among and possibly within honey bee colonies. Thus, selective breeding for virus resistance should be possible. Gene expression analyses of three separate experiments suggest IAPV disruption of transcriptional homeostasis of several fundamental cellular functions, including an up-regulation of the ribosomal biogenesis pathway. These results provide first insights into the mechanisms of IAPV pathogenicity. They mirror a transcriptional survey of honey bees afflicted with Colony Collapse Disorder and thus support the hypothesis that viruses play a critical role in declining honey bee health.
全球范围内蜜蜂健康状况持续下降是一个严重的经济和生态问题。导致这种下降的一个主要因素是病原体，包括几种蜜蜂病毒。然而，关于蜜蜂病毒的生物学及其与宿主的分子相互作用的信息有限。本研究开发了一种实验方案，用于测试这些系统，方法是将以色列急性麻痹病毒（IAPV）注射到在实验室条件下异地饲养的蜜蜂蛹中。受感染的蛹表现出明显但可变的疾病模式。症状从完全停止发育且无明显疾病迹象到部分或整个身体迅速变暗不等。观察到 IAPV 滴度动态的相当大差异，表明不同的蜜蜂群体和/或个体之间对 IAPV 的抗性存在显著差异。因此，对病毒抗性的选择性育种应该是可能的。三项独立实验的基因表达分析表明，IAPV 破坏了几个基本细胞功能的转录动态平衡，包括核糖体生物发生途径的上调。这些结果首次提供了对 IAPV 致病性机制的深入了解。它们反映了对患有蜂群崩溃失调症的蜜蜂的转录调查，因此支持了病毒在蜜蜂健康状况下降中起关键作用的假设。
