Guo Yulong, Zhang Zhengyi, Zhuang Mingsheng, Wang Liuhao, Li Kai, Yao Jun, Yang Huipeng, Huang Jiaxing, Hao Yue, Ying Fan, Mannan Hira, Wu Jie, Chen Yanping, Li Jilian
Key Laboratory of Pollinating Insect Biology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
Shanghai Suosheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China.
Front Microbiol. 2021 Jun 2;12:615893. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.615893. eCollection 2021.
The honey bee is one of the most important pollinators in the agricultural system and is responsible for pollinating a third of all food we eat. Sacbrood virus (SBV) is a member of the virus family and affects honey bee larvae and causes particularly devastating disease in the Asian honey bees, . Chinese Sacbrood virus (CSBV) is a geographic strain of SBV identified in China and has resulted in mass death of honey bees in China in recent years. However, the molecular mechanism underlying SBV infection in the Asian honey bee has remained unelucidated. In this present study, we employed high throughput next-generation sequencing technology to study the host transcriptional responses to CSBV infection in larvae, and were able to identify genome-wide differentially expressed genes associated with the viral infection. Our study identified 2,534 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in host innate immunity including Toll and immune deficiency (IMD) pathways, RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, endocytosis, etc. Notably, the expression of genes encoding antimicrobial peptides (, , , and ) and core components of RNAi such as and were found to be significantly upregulated in CSBV infected larvae. Most importantly, the expression of Sirtuin target genes, a family of signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation, apoptosis, and intracellular signaling was found to be changed, providing the first evidence of the involvement of Sirtuin signaling pathway in insects' immune response to a virus infection. The results obtained from this study provide novel insights into the molecular mechanism and immune responses involved in CSBV infection, which in turn will contribute to the development of diagnostics and treatment for the diseases in honey bees.
蜜蜂是农业系统中最重要的传粉者之一,负责为我们所食用的三分之一的食物授粉。囊状幼虫病毒(SBV)是病毒家族的一员,会影响蜜蜂幼虫,并在亚洲蜜蜂中引发特别具有毁灭性的疾病。中国囊状幼虫病毒(CSBV)是在中国发现的SBV的一个地理株系,近年来已导致中国蜜蜂大量死亡。然而,亚洲蜜蜂中SBV感染的分子机制仍未阐明。在本研究中,我们采用高通量下一代测序技术研究宿主对幼虫中CSBV感染的转录反应,并能够鉴定与病毒感染相关的全基因组差异表达基因。我们的研究鉴定出2534个参与宿主固有免疫的差异表达基因(DEGs),包括Toll和免疫缺陷(IMD)途径、RNA干扰(RNAi)途径、内吞作用等。值得注意的是,在CSBV感染的幼虫中,编码抗菌肽(、、、和)的基因以及RNAi的核心成分如和的表达被发现显著上调。最重要的是,发现参与代谢调节、细胞凋亡和细胞内信号传导的信号蛋白家族沉默调节蛋白靶基因的表达发生了变化,这为沉默调节蛋白信号通路参与昆虫对病毒感染的免疫反应提供了首个证据。本研究获得的结果为CSBV感染所涉及的分子机制和免疫反应提供了新的见解,这反过来将有助于蜜蜂疾病诊断和治疗方法的开发。