Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Slagelse, 4200, Denmark.
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, 27403, USA.
Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 9;6:33065. doi: 10.1038/srep33065.
Deformed wing virus is an important contributor to honey bee colony losses. Frequently queen failure is reported as a cause for colony loss. Here we examine whether sexual transmission during multiple matings of queens is a possible way of virus infection in queens. In an environment with high prevalence of deformed wing virus, queens (n = 30) were trapped upon their return from natural mating flights. The last drone's endophallus (n = 29), if present, was removed from the mated queens for deformed wing virus quantification, leading to the detection of high-level infection in 3 endophalli. After oviposition, viral quantification revealed that seven of the 30 queens had high-level deformed wing virus infections, in all tissues, including the semen stored in the spermathecae. Two groups of either unmated queens (n = 8) with induced egg laying, or queens (n = 12) mated in isolation with drones showing comparatively low deformed wing virus infections served as control. None of the control queens exhibited high-level viral infections. Our results demonstrate that deformed wing virus infected drones are competitive to mate and able to transmit the virus along with semen, which occasionally leads to queen infections. Virus transmission to queens during mating may be common and can contribute noticeably to queen failure.
变形翅膀病毒是导致蜜蜂种群损失的重要因素。经常有报道称蜂王衰竭是种群损失的原因之一。在这里，我们研究了在多次蜂王交配期间的性传播是否是蜂王感染病毒的一种可能途径。在变形翅膀病毒高发的环境中，当蜂王从自然交配飞行中返回时，我们会对其进行诱捕（n=30）。如果有存在的话，从交配后的蜂王身上取出最后一只雄蜂的中肠腺（n=29），以对变形翅膀病毒进行定量检测，结果在 3 个中肠腺中检测到高水平的感染。产卵后，病毒定量检测显示，在包括储存在受精囊中的精液在内的所有组织中，有 7 只蜂王都出现了高水平的变形翅膀病毒感染。两组未经交配的蜂王（n=8）被诱导产卵，或与感染水平相对较低的雄蜂隔离交配的蜂王（n=12）作为对照组。对照组中没有一只蜂王出现高水平的病毒感染。我们的研究结果表明，感染变形翅膀病毒的雄蜂具有竞争力，可以通过精液传播病毒，这偶尔会导致蜂王感染。在交配期间，病毒向蜂王的传播可能很常见，并可能对蜂王衰竭产生显著影响。
