| temporal analysis of the honey bee microbiome reveals four novel viruses and seasonal prevalence of known viruses, nosema, and crithidia. | honey bees (apis mellifera) play a critical role in global food production as pollinators of numerous crops. recently, honey bee populations in the united states, canada, and europe have suffered an unexplained increase in annual losses due to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (ccd). epidemiological analysis of ccd is confounded by a relative dearth of bee pathogen field studies. to identify what constitutes an abnormal pathophysiological condition in a honey bee colony, it is criti ... | 2011 | 21687739 |
| a unique nodavirus with novel features: mosinovirus expresses two subgenomic rnas, a capsid gene of unknown origin, and a suppressor of the antiviral rna interference pathway. | insects are a reservoir for many known and novel viruses. we discovered an unknown virus, tentatively named mosinovirus (monv), in mosquitoes from a tropical rainforest region in côte d'ivoire. the monv genome consists of two segments of positive-sense rna of 2,972 nucleotides (nt) (rna 1) and 1,801 nt (rna 2). its putative rna-dependent rna polymerase shares 43% amino acid identity with its closest relative, that of the pariacoto virus (family nodaviridae). unexpectedly, for the putative capsid ... | 2014 | 25210176 |
| the honey bee pathosphere of mongolia: european viruses in central asia. | parasites and pathogens are apparent key factors for the detrimental health of managed european honey bee subspecies, apis mellifera. apicultural trade is arguably the main factor for the almost global distribution of most honey bee diseases, thereby increasing chances for multiple infestations/infections of regions, apiaries, colonies and even individual bees. this imposes difficulties to evaluate the effects of pathogens in isolation, thereby creating demand to survey remote areas. here, we co ... | 2016 | 26959221 |
| bee pathogens found in bombus atratus from colombia: a case study. | bombus atratus bumblebees from colombia that were caught in the wild and from breeding programs were screened for a broad set of bee pathogens. we discovered for the first time lake sinai virus and confirmed the infection by other common viruses. the prevalence of apicystis bombi, crithidia bombi and nosema ceranae was remarkably high. according to other studies the former two could have been co-introduced in south america with exotic bumble bees as bombus terrestris or bombus ruderatus. given t ... | 2015 | 26031564 |
| vertical transmission of honey bee viruses in a belgian queen breeding program. | the member states of european union are encouraged to improve the general conditions for the production and marketing of apicultural products. in belgium, programmes on the restocking of honey bee hives have run for many years. overall, the success ratio of this queen breeding programme has been only around 50%. to tackle this low efficacy, we organized sanitary controls of the breeding queens in 2012 and 2014. | 2015 | 25889959 |
| large pathogen screening reveals first report of megaselia scalaris (diptera: phoridae) parasitizing apis mellifera intermissa (hymenoptera: apidae). | as it is most likely that global warming will also lead to a shift in pollinator-habitats northwards, the study of southern species becomes more and more important. pathogen screenings in subspecies of apis mellifera capable of withstanding higher temperatures, provide an insight into future pathogen host interactions. screenings in different climate regions also provide a global perspective on the prevalence of certain pathogens. in this project, we performed a pathogen screening in apis mellif ... | 2016 | 27130035 |
| comprehensive bee pathogen screening in belgium reveals crithidia mellificae as a new contributory factor to winter mortality. | since the last decade, unusually high honey bee colony losses have been reported mainly in north-america and europe. here, we report on a comprehensive bee pathogen screening in belgium covering 363 bee colonies that were screened for 18 known disease-causing pathogens and correlate their incidence in summer with subsequent winter mortality. our analyses demonstrate that, in addition to varroa destructor, the presence of the trypanosomatid parasite crithidia mellificae and the microsporidian par ... | 2013 | 23991113 |
| pathogen prevalence and abundance in honey bee colonies involved in almond pollination. | honey bees are important pollinators of agricultural crops. since 2006, us beekeepers have experienced high annual honey bee colony losses, which may be attributed to multiple abiotic and biotic factors, including pathogens. however, the relative importance of these factors has not been fully elucidated. to identify the most prevalent pathogens and investigate the relationship between colony strength and health, we assessed pathogen occurrence, prevalence, and abundance in western us honey bee c ... | 2017 | 27053820 |
| honey bee infecting lake sinai viruses. | honey bees are critical pollinators of important agricultural crops. recently, high annual losses of honey bee colonies have prompted further investigation of honey bee infecting viruses. to better characterize the recently discovered and very prevalent lake sinai virus (lsv) group, we sequenced currently circulating lsvs, performed phylogenetic analysis, and obtained images of lsv2. sequence analysis resulted in extension of the lsv1 and lsv2 genomes, the first detection of lsv4 in the us, and ... | 2015 | 26110586 |
| holistic screening of collapsing honey bee colonies in spain: a case study. | here we present a holistic screening of collapsing colonies from three professional apiaries in spain. colonies with typical honey bee depopulation symptoms were selected for multiple possible factors to reveal the causes of collapse. | 2014 | 25223634 |
| widespread occurrence of honey bee pathogens in solitary bees. | solitary bees and honey bees from a neighbouring apiary were screened for a broad set of putative pathogens including protists, fungi, spiroplasmas and viruses. most sampled bees appeared to be infected with multiple parasites. interestingly, viruses exclusively known from honey bees such as apis mellifera filamentous virus and varroa destructor macula-like virus were also discovered in solitary bees. a microsporidium found in andrena vaga showed most resemblance to nosema thomsoni. our results ... | 2014 | 25196470 |
| varroa destructor macula-like virus, lake sinai virus and other new rna viruses in wild bumblebee hosts (bombus pascuorum, bombus lapidarius and bombus pratorum). | pollinators such as bumblebees (bombus spp.) are in decline worldwide which poses a threat not only for ecosystem biodiversity but also to human crop production services. one main cause of pollinator decline may be the infection and transmission of diseases including rna viruses. recently, new viruses have been discovered in honeybees, but information on the presence of these in wild bumblebees is largely not available. in this study, we investigated the prevalence of new rna viruses in bombus s ... | 2016 | 26706994 |
| genome sequence heterogeneity of lake sinai virus found in honey bees and orf1/rdrp-based polymorphisms in a single host. | honey bees (apis mellifera) are susceptible to a wide range of pathogens, including a broad set of viruses. recently, next-generation sequencing has expanded the list of viruses with, for instance, two strains of lake sinai virus. soon after its discovery in the usa, lsv was also discovered in other countries and in other hosts. in the present study, we assemble four almost complete lsv genomes, and show that there is remarkable sequence heterogeneity based on the orf1, rna-dependent rna polymer ... | 2015 | 25725149 |
| metagenomic detection of viral pathogens in spanish honeybees: co-infection by aphid lethal paralysis, israel acute paralysis and lake sinai viruses. | the situation in europe concerning honeybees has in recent years become increasingly aggravated with steady decline in populations and/or catastrophic winter losses. this has largely been attributed to the occurrence of a variety of known and "unknown", emerging novel diseases. previous studies have demonstrated that colonies often can harbour more than one pathogen, making identification of etiological agents with classical methods difficult. by employing an unbiased metagenomic approach, which ... | 2013 | 23460860 |
| metatranscriptomic analyses of honey bee colonies. | honey bees face numerous biotic threats from viruses to bacteria, fungi, protists, and mites. here we describe a thorough analysis of microbes harbored by worker honey bees collected from field colonies in geographically distinct regions of turkey. turkey is one of the world's most important centers of apiculture, harboring five subspecies of apis mellifera l., approximately 20% of the honey bee subspecies in the world. we use deep illumina-based rna sequencing to capture rna species for the hon ... | 2015 | 25852743 |