Appler R Holden, Frank Steven D, Tarpy David R
Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Insects. 2015 Oct 29;6(4):912-25. doi: 10.3390/insects6040912.
Urbanization has the potential to dramatically affect insect populations worldwide, although its effects on pollinator populations are just beginning to be understood. We compared the immunocompetency of honey bees sampled from feral (wild-living) and managed (beekeeper-owned) honey bee colonies. We sampled foragers from feral and managed colonies in rural, suburban, and urban landscapes in and around Raleigh, NC, USA. We then analyzed adult workers using two standard bioassays for insect immune function (encapsulation response and phenoloxidase activity). We found that there was far more variation within colonies for encapsulation response or phenoloxidase activity than among rural to urban landscapes, and we did not observe any significant difference in immune response between feral and managed bees. These findings suggest that social pollinators, like honey bees, may be sufficiently robust or variable in their immune responses to obscure any subtle effects of urbanization. Additional studies of immune physiology and disease ecology of social and solitary bees in urban, suburban, and natural ecosystems will provide insights into the relative effects of changing urban environments on several important factors that influence pollinator productivity and health.
城市化有可能极大地影响全球昆虫种群，尽管其对传粉者种群的影响才刚刚开始被了解。我们比较了从野生（生活在野外）和养殖（养蜂人拥有）蜂群中采集的蜜蜂的免疫能力。我们在美国北卡罗来纳州罗利市及其周边的农村、郊区和城市景观中，从野生和养殖蜂群中采集觅食工蜂。然后，我们使用两种昆虫免疫功能标准生物测定法（包囊化反应和酚氧化酶活性）对成年工蜂进行分析。我们发现，蜂群内部在包囊化反应或酚氧化酶活性方面的差异远大于农村到城市景观之间的差异，并且我们没有观察到野生蜜蜂和养殖蜜蜂在免疫反应上有任何显著差异。这些发现表明，像蜜蜂这样的社会性传粉者，其免疫反应可能足够强健或多变，从而掩盖了城市化的任何细微影响。对城市、郊区和自然生态系统中的社会性和独居性蜜蜂的免疫生理学和疾病生态学进行更多研究，将有助于深入了解不断变化的城市环境对影响传粉者生产力和健康的几个重要因素的相对影响。
