USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2019 Jun;28(12):2955-2957. doi: 10.1111/mec.15142.
Rivaling pesticides and a dearth of flowers, the parasitic mite Varroa destructor presents a tremendous threat to western honey bees, Apis mellifera. A longstanding, but minor, pest for the Asian honey bee Apis cerana, these obligate bee parasites feast on developing and adult A. mellifera across several continents. Varroa reproduction is limited to a short window when developing bee pupae are concealed in wax cells. Mated females target developing bees just before pupation and then have about one day to initiate reproduction, eventually laying one male and up to several female offspring. Female mites often fail to reproduce at all, instead waiting in cells until their bee host finishes development and then hitching dangerous rides on a succession of adult bees for up to several weeks, before scouting for a new host pupa. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Conlon et al. (2019) have explored mite reproductive success via a clever and thought-provoking association study. In so doing, they have identified a protein whose actions could be integral to the dance between bees and their mite parasites.
与杀虫剂和缺乏花卉相竞争，寄生螨瓦螨对西方蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）构成了巨大威胁。这种螨类对亚洲蜜蜂（Apis cerana）来说是一种长期存在但影响较小的害虫，它们以数种大陆上的成年和发育中的蜜蜂为食。瓦螨的繁殖仅限于一个短暂的时期，此时正在发育的蜜蜂蛹被隐藏在蜡质细胞中。交配后的雌性瓦螨会在即将化蛹的发育中的蜜蜂上产卵，然后大约有一天的时间开始繁殖，最终产下一只雄性和多达几只雌性后代。然而，雌性螨虫往往根本无法繁殖，而是在细胞中等待，直到它们的蜜蜂宿主完成发育，然后在数周内搭乘成年蜜蜂的危险旅程，最后在寻找新的宿主蛹之前进行侦察。在本期《分子生态学》中，Conlon 等人（2019 年）通过一项巧妙而发人深省的关联研究探索了螨虫的繁殖成功。他们发现了一种蛋白质，其作用可能是蜜蜂及其螨虫寄生虫之间舞蹈的关键。
