Experimental evidence of harmful effects of Crithidia mellificae and Lotmaria passim on honey bees

Gómez‐Moracho, Tamara; Buendía-Abad, María; Benito, M.; García-Palencia, Pilar; Barrios, Laura; Bartolomé, Carolina; Maside, Xulio; Meana, Aránzazu; Jiménez-Antón,; Olías-Molero, Ana Isabel; Alunda, José María; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Higes, Mariano

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.06.009

Cited by 48 publications

(44 citation statements)

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“…Another new pathogen of fairly high prevalence and incidence (copy number) in our study was the trypanosome, L. passim. This pathogen was described in the western honey bee in the US in 2015 [70], and it has since been found to be detrimental to colony health [71]. With this rich diversity of pathogens and parasites, why was Varroa mite found to be the only significant causal factor in colony health?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey Bee Health in Maine Wild Blueberry Production

Drummond

Lund²,

Eitzer

2021

Insects

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A two-year study was conducted in Maine wild blueberry fields (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) on the health of migratory honey bee colonies in 2014 and 2015. In each year, three or five colonies were monitored at each of nine wild blueberry field locations during bloom (mid-May until mid-June). Colony health was measured by assessing colony strength during wild blueberry bloom. Potential factors that might affect colony health were queen failure or supersedure; pesticide residues on trapped pollen, wax comb, and bee bread; and parasites and pathogens. We found that Varroa mite and pesticide residues on trapped pollen were significant predictors of colony health measured as the rate of change in the amount of sealed brood during bloom. These two factors explained 71% of the variance in colony health over the two years. Pesticide exposure was different in each year as were pathogen prevalence and incidence. We detected high prevalence and abundance of two recently discovered pathogens and one recently discovered parasite, the trypanosome Lotmaria passim Schwartz, the Sinai virus, and the phorid fly, Apocephalus borealis Brues.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey Bee Health in Maine Wild Blueberry Production

Drummond

Lund²,

Eitzer

2021

Insects

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“…CC-BY 4.0 International license made available under a (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted April 12, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.12.439428 doi: bioRxiv preprint observed under our experimental conditions, for which the inoculum characteristics, as well as the number of culture passages, the morphotype used or the age of the cell cultures should be borne in mind [32,33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reference trypanosomatid strains of C. mellificae (ATCC 30254) and L. passim (ATCC PRA403) were used for the inoculums. Cells were cultured in Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI: Sigma) supplemented with 10% of Heat Inactivated Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS: Gibco) and 1% of Penicillin/Streptomycin (17-602E, Lonza), as described previously [32,33]. Cultures were maintained at 27 ºC in 25 cm 2 flasks (Corning), with an initial concentration of 10 5 cells/mL.…”

Section: Cell Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted April 12, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.12.439428 doi: bioRxiv preprint 6 phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Two-day-old bees were starved for 2 hours and inoculated individually, as described previously [32,34,35], with either 2 µL of C. mellificae or L. passim inoculum per bee, while control bees received the same volume of PBS. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) sample preparation could lead to the loss of trypanosomatids and so, to ensure accurate images were obtained from bees, they were inoculated twice a day over 12 consecutive days and after the final dose, they were fed ad libitum with 50% sucrose syrup + 2% Promotor L (Calier Lab).…”

Section: Experimental Infection Of Honeybeesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First description ofLotmaria passimandCrithidia mellificaehaptomonad stage in the honeybee hindgut

Buendía-Abad¹,

García-Palencia

Pablos-Torro

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The remodelling of flagella into attachment structures is a common and important event in the insect stages of the trypanosomatid life cycle. Among their hymenopteran hosts, Lotmaria passim and Crithidia mellificae can parasitize Apis mellifera , and as a result they might have a significant impact on honeybee health. However, there are details of their life cycle and the mechanisms underlying their pathogenicity in this host that remain unclear. Here we show that both L. passim promastigotes and C. mellificae choanomastigotes differentiate into haptomonad stage covering the ileum and rectum of honeybees. These haptomonad cells remain attached to the host surface via zonular hemidesmosome-like structures, as revealed by Transmission Electron Microscopy. Hence, for the first time this work describes the haptomonad morphotype of these species and their hemidesmosome-like attachment in Apis mellifera , a key trait exploited by other trypanosomatid species to proliferate in the insect host hindgut.

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“…Crithidia mellificae was initially discovered during the investigation of colony losses in Australia that could not be explained by any then-recognized infectious disease (Langridge, 1966;Langridge and McGhee, 1967). This species can infect sweat, bumble, and mason bees (Halictus, Bombus, and Osmia) genera as well as honey bees (Strobl et al, 2019;Ngor et al, 2020), with elevated mortality in honey bees and Osmia cornuta (Strobl et al, 2019;Gómez-Moracho et al, 2020). Lotmaria passim was not distinguished from C. mellificae until 2014, but is now considered the dominant parasite of honey bees worldwide (Schwarz et al, 2015;Arismendi et al, 2016;Stevanovic et al, 2016;Xu et al, 2018;Williams et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Punch in the gut: Parasite tolerance of phytochemicals reflects host diet

Palmer‐Young¹,

Schwarz

Chen³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Gut parasites of plant-eating insects are exposed to antimicrobial phytochemicals that can reduce infection. Trypanosomatid gut parasites infect insects of diverse nutritional ecologies as well as mammals and plants, raising the question of how host diet-associated phytochemicals shape parasite evolution and host specificity. To test the hypothesis that phytochemical tolerance of trypanosomatids reflects the chemical ecology of their hosts, we compared related parasites from honey bees and mosquitoes- hosts that differ in phytochemical consumption- and contrasted our results with previous studies on phylogenetically related, human-parasitic Leishmania. We identified one bacterial and ten plant-derived substances with known antileishmanial activity that also inhibited honey bee parasites associated with colony collapse. Bee parasites exhibited greater tolerance of chrysin- a flavonoid found in nectar, pollen, and plant resin-derived propolis. In contrast, mosquito parasites were more tolerant of cinnamic acid- a product of lignin decomposition present in woody debris-rich larval habitats. Parasites from both hosts tolerated many compounds that inhibit Leishmania, hinting at possible trade-offs between phytochemical tolerance and mammalian infection. Our results implicate the phytochemistry of host diets as a potential driver of insect-trypanosomatid associations, and identify compounds that could be incorporated into colony diets or floral landscapes to ameliorate infection in bees.

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Experimental evidence of harmful effects of Crithidia mellificae and Lotmaria passim on honey bees

Cited by 48 publications

References 49 publications

Honey Bee Health in Maine Wild Blueberry Production

Honey Bee Health in Maine Wild Blueberry Production

First description ofLotmaria passimandCrithidia mellificaehaptomonad stage in the honeybee hindgut

Punch in the gut: Parasite tolerance of phytochemicals reflects host diet

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