Cell Biology Department, University of Brasília, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil.
Control Agro Bio Pesquisa E Defesa Agropecuária, Parque Tecnológico TECNOPUC/PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Braz J Microbiol. 2023 Sep;54(3):1447-1458. doi: 10.1007/s42770-023-01078-z. Epub 2023 Aug 2.
The decline in honey bee colonies in different parts of the world in recent years is due to different reasons, such as agricultural practices, climate changes, the use of chemical insecticides, and pests and diseases. Viral infections are one of the main causes leading to honey bee population declines, which have a major economic impact due to honey production and pollination. To investigate the presence of viruses in bees in southern Brazil, we used a metagenomic approach to sequence adults' samples of concentrated extracts from Apis mellifera collected in fifteen apiaries of six municipalities in the Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, between 2016 and 2017. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) of these samples resulted in the identification of eight previously known viruses (Apis rhabdovirus 1 (ARV-1), Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Aphid lethal paralysis virus (ALPV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV), Bee Macula-like virus (BeeMLV), Deformed wing virus (DWV), Lake Sinai Virus NE (LSV), and Varroa destructor virus 3 (VDV-3)) and a thogotovirus isolate. This thogotovirus shares high amino acid identities in five of the six segments with Varroa orthomyxovirus 1, VOV-1 (98.36 to 99.34% identity). In contrast, segment 4, which codes for the main glycoprotein (GP), has no identity with VOV-1, as observed for the other segments, but shares an amino acid identity of 34-38% with other glycoproteins of viruses from the Orthomyxoviridae family. In addition, the putative thogotovirus GP also shows amino acid identities ranging from 33 to 41% with the major glycoprotein (GP64) of insect viruses of the Baculoviridae family. To our knowledge, this is the second report of a thogotovirus found in bees and given this information, this thogotovirus isolate was tentatively named Apis thogotovirus 1 (ATHOV-1). The detection of multiple viruses in bees is important to better understand the complex interactions between viruses and their hosts. By understanding these interactions, better strategies for managing viral infections in bees and protecting their populations can be developed.
近年来，世界各地的蜜蜂蜂群数量下降的原因有很多，例如农业实践、气候变化、化学杀虫剂的使用以及病虫害等。病毒感染是导致蜜蜂种群数量下降的主要原因之一，这对蜂蜜生产和授粉造成了重大的经济影响。为了调查巴西南部蜜蜂中病毒的存在情况，我们使用宏基因组方法对 2016 年至 2017 年间从巴西南里奥格兰德州的 6 个城市的 15 个养蜂场采集的成年浓缩提取物样本进行测序。对这些样本进行高通量测序（HTS），鉴定出了 8 种先前已知的病毒（ARV-1、急性麻痹病毒（ABPV）、蚜虫致死麻痹病毒（ALPV）、黑蜂王细胞病毒（BQCV）、蜂黄斑病毒（BeeMLV）、变形翼病毒（DWV）、西奈湖病毒 NE（LSV）和瓦螨破坏病毒 3（VDV-3））和一种硫蛋白病毒分离株。这种硫蛋白病毒在 6 个节段中的 5 个节段与瓦螨正粘病毒 1（VOV-1）的氨基酸同源性很高（98.36 至 99.34%的同源性）。相比之下，编码主要糖蛋白（GP）的第 4 节与 VOV-1 没有同一性，与其他节段相同，但与 Orthomyxoviridae 家族的其他病毒的糖蛋白具有 34-38%的氨基酸同一性。此外，推测的硫蛋白病毒 GP 还与杆状病毒科昆虫病毒的主要糖蛋白（GP64）具有 33-41%的氨基酸同一性。据我们所知，这是第二种在蜜蜂中发现的硫蛋白病毒的报告，根据这一信息，该硫蛋白病毒分离株被暂命名为 Apis thogotovirus 1（ATHOV-1）。在蜜蜂中检测到多种病毒对于更好地了解病毒与其宿主之间的复杂相互作用非常重要。通过了解这些相互作用，可以制定出更好的管理蜜蜂病毒感染和保护其种群的策略。
