Glavinic Uros, Tesovnik Tanja, Stevanovic Jevrosima, Zorc Minja, Cizelj Ivanka, Stanimirovic Zoran, Narat Mojca
Department of Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
PeerJ. 2019 Feb 8;7:e6325. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6325. eCollection 2019.
Among numerous factors that contribute to honey bee colony losses and problems in beekeeping, pesticides and have been often reported. In contrast to insecticides, whose effects on bees have been widely studied, fungicides did not attract considerable attention. Prochloraz, an imidazole fungicide widely used in agriculture, was detected in honey and pollen stored inside hives and has been already proven to alter immune gene expression of honey bees at different developmental stages. The aim of this study was to simulate the realistic conditions of migratory beekeeping, where colonies, both uninfected and infected with , are frequently transported to the vicinity of crop fields treated with prochloraz. We investigated the combined effect of prochloraz and on honey bees that faced fungicide during the larval stage through food consumption and microsporidium infection afterwards. The most pronounced changes in gene expression were observed in newly emerged -free bees originating from colonies previously contaminated with prochloraz. As exclusively upregulation was registered, prochloraz alone most likely acts as a challenge that induces activation of immune pathways in newly emerged bees. The combination of both stressors (prochloraz and infection) exerted the greatest effect on six-day-old honey bees. Among ten genes with significantly altered expression, half were upregulated and half downregulated. as a sole stressor had the weakest effects on immune gene expression modulation with only three genes significantly dysregulated. In conclusion, food contaminated with prochloraz consumed in larval stage could present a threat to the development of immunity and detoxification mechanisms in honey bees.
在导致蜜蜂蜂群损失和养蜂业问题的众多因素中，农药常被提及。与杀虫剂不同，杀虫剂对蜜蜂的影响已得到广泛研究，而杀菌剂并未引起太多关注。咪鲜胺是一种广泛用于农业的咪唑类杀菌剂，在蜂巢内储存的蜂蜜和花粉中被检测到，并且已被证明会改变不同发育阶段蜜蜂的免疫基因表达。本研究的目的是模拟转地放蜂的实际情况，即未感染和感染[某种病原体]的蜂群经常被运到用咪鲜胺处理过的农田附近。我们研究了咪鲜胺和[某种病原体]对在幼虫期通过取食接触杀菌剂且之后感染微孢子虫的蜜蜂的联合影响。在源自先前被咪鲜胺污染的蜂群的新羽化的未感染[某种病原体]的蜜蜂中观察到最明显的基因表达变化。由于只记录到上调情况，单独的咪鲜胺很可能起到一种刺激作用，诱导新羽化蜜蜂的免疫途径激活。两种应激源（咪鲜胺和[某种病原体]感染）的组合对6日龄蜜蜂的影响最大。在表达显著改变的10个基因中，一半上调，一半下调。[某种病原体]作为唯一应激源对免疫基因表达调节的影响最弱，只有3个基因显著失调。总之，幼虫期食用受咪鲜胺污染的食物可能对蜜蜂免疫和解毒机制的发育构成威胁。
