Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of honey bee viruses, Nosema microsporidia, protozoan parasites, and parasitic mites in China
Open Access
- 4 January 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Ecology and Evolution
- Vol. 3 (2), 298-311
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.464
Abstract
China has the largest number of managed honey bee colonies, which produce the highest quantity of honey and royal jelly in the world; however, the presence of honey bee pathogens and parasites has never been rigorously identified in Chinese apiaries. We thus conducted a molecular survey of honey bee RNA viruses, Nosema microsporidia, protozoan parasites, and tracheal mites associated with nonnative Apis mellifera ligustica and native Apis cerana cerana colonies in China. We found the presence of black queen cell virus (BQCV), chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), deformed wing virus (DWV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), and sacbrood virus (SBV), but not that of acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) or Kashmir bee virus (KBV). DWV was the most prevalent in the tested samples. Phylogenies of Chinese viral isolates demonstrated that genetically heterogeneous populations of BQCV, CBPV, DWV, and A. cerana‐infecting SBV, and relatively homogenous populations of IAPV and A. meliifera‐infecting new strain of SBV with single origins, are spread in Chinese apiaries. Similar to previous observations in many countries, Nosema ceranae, but not Nosema apis, was prevalent in the tested samples. Crithidia mellificae, but not Apicystis bombi was found in five samples, including one A. c. cerana colony, demonstrating that C. mellificae is capable of infecting multiple honey bee species. Based on kinetoplast‐encoded cytochrome b sequences, the C. mellificae isolate from A. c. cerana represents a novel haplotype with 19 nucleotide differences from the Chinese and Japanese isolates from A. m. ligustica. This suggests that A. c. cerana is the native host for this specific haplotype. The tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi, was detected in one A. m. ligustica colony. Our results demonstrate that honey bee RNA viruses, N. ceranae, C. mellificae, and tracheal mites are present in Chinese apiaries, and some might be originated from native Asian honey bees.This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Molecular Identification of Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus Infection in Apis mellifera Colonies in JapanViruses, 2012
- Synergistic Parasite-Pathogen Interactions Mediated by Host Immunity Can Drive the Collapse of Honeybee ColoniesPLoS Pathogens, 2012
- Dead or Alive: Deformed Wing Virus and Varroa destructor Reduce the Life Span of Winter HoneybeesApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2012
- MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Using Maximum Likelihood, Evolutionary Distance, and Maximum Parsimony MethodsMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2011
- Colony Collapse Disorder in contextBioEssays, 2010
- Nosema ceranae in European honey bees (Apis mellifera)Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 2010
- Asymmetrical coexistence of Nosema ceranae and Nosema apis in honey beesJournal of Invertebrate Pathology, 2009
- Genetic Analysis of Israel Acute Paralysis Virus: Distinct Clusters Are Circulating in the United StatesJournal of Virology, 2008
- Phylogenetic Analysis of Deformed Wing Virus Genotypes from Diverse Geographic Origins Indicates Recent Global Distribution of the VirusApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughputNucleic Acids Research, 2004