Faúndez-Acuña Jorge Y, Verdugo Diego, Vergara David, Olivares Gerardo, Ballesteros Gabriel I, Quiroz Karla, Villarroel Carlos A, González Gloria
Doctorate in Translational Biotechnology (DBT), Catholic University of Maule, Talca, Maule Region, Chile.
Center for Biotechnology of Natural Resources (CENBio), Catholic University of Maule, Talca, Maule Region, Chile.
PeerJ. 2025 Feb 21;13:e18634. doi: 10.7717/peerj.18634. eCollection 2025.
The Kashmir bee virus (KBV) infects many species of Hymenoptera, including bees, wasps, and other pollinators, potentially contributing to honeybee population declines. KBV can cause death of bees. KBV can infect through both vertical transmission (from queen to larvae and vice versa) and horizontal transmission (via food contamination). Plants pollinated by bees may be a source of horizontal transmission, through fecal contamination of pollen and flowers by infected pollinators, both intra- and interspecifically. Pollinated plants constitute a source of KBV intra- and inter-species horizontal transmission, particularly by the contamination of pollen and flowers by feces of KBV-infected pollinators.
We test for the presence of KBV sequences in the transcriptomes of Vasconcellea pubescens, a commercially valuable plant species known as mountain papaya. We mapped transcriptomes from fruit, leaves, and root tissues to the KBV reference genome with 91% coverage, from which we produced a consensus sequence denominated Kashmir bee virus ch. phylogenetic analysis revealed that KBV-Ch shares 97% nucleotide identity with the reference genome, and groups with other KBV strains isolated from Spain, Chile and New Zealand.
克什米尔蜜蜂病毒（KBV）感染许多膜翅目物种，包括蜜蜂、黄蜂和其他传粉者，这可能是蜜蜂种群数量下降的原因之一。KBV可导致蜜蜂死亡。KBV可通过垂直传播（从蜂王到幼虫，反之亦然）和水平传播（通过食物污染）进行感染。蜜蜂授粉的植物可能是水平传播的一个来源，感染的传粉者会在种内和种间通过粪便污染花粉和花朵。授粉植物是KBV种内和种间水平传播的一个来源，特别是通过受KBV感染的传粉者的粪便污染花粉和花朵。
我们检测了番木瓜（一种具有商业价值的植物，也被称为山地番木瓜）转录组中KBV序列的存在情况。我们将果实、叶片和根组织的转录组与KBV参考基因组进行比对，覆盖率达91%，由此产生了一个名为克什米尔蜜蜂病毒ch的共有序列。系统发育分析表明，KBV-Ch与参考基因组的核苷酸同一性为97%，并与从西班牙、智利和新西兰分离出的其他KBV毒株归为一类。
