New Asian types of<i>Varroa destructor:</i>a potential new threat for world apiculture

Navajas, María; Anderson, Denis L.; Guzman, Lilia I. de; Zhi, Huang; Clement, Jeremy; Zhou, Ting; Conte, Yves Le

doi:10.1051/apido/2009068

Cited by 78 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…BCC/BMC relate to VCC more closely, similar to above, suggesting that Varroa from cerana originally and still on cerana mimicked the best their host cerana bees; these three then clustered with VMC, Varroa originally from mellifera and now on cerana. Finally, the top four groups (**M) and the bottom four groups (**C) then form two common clusters, suggesting that the second host playing a much more important role than the original host, and Previous analysis has indicated mitochondrial polymorphism in Varroa [12]. As was published in that study, Varroa from Am were determined to be Korean haplotype 2 (K2) and those from Ac were Korean haplotype 3 (K3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Varroa destructor changes its cuticular hydrocarbons to mimic new hosts

Conte¹,

Zhi

Roux³

et al. 2015

Biol. Lett.

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Varroa destructor (Vd) is a honeybee ectoparasite. Its original host is the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, but it has also become a severe, global threat to the European honeybee, Apis mellifera. Previous studies have shown that Varroa can mimic a host's cuticular hydrocarbons (HC), enabling the parasite to escape the hygienic behaviour of the host honeybees. By transferring mites between the two honeybee species, we further demonstrate that Vd is able to mimic the cuticular HC of a novel host species when artificially transferred to this new host. Mites originally from A. cerana are more efficient than mites from A. mellifera in mimicking HC of both A. cerana and A. mellifera. This remarkable adaptability may explain their relatively recent host-shift from A. cerana to A. mellifera.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Varroa destructor changes its cuticular hydrocarbons to mimic new hosts

Conte¹,

Zhi

Roux³

et al. 2015

Biol. Lett.

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“…It has been shown that two major mite haplotypes have spread over the world, the Japanese and the Korean haplotypes (Anderson, 2000) Each haplotype has a clonal genetic structure (Solignac et al, 2005). While it is unlikely that different Varroa haplotypes could explain the recent colony losses, two new haplotypes of Varroa destructor were recently described in A. mellifera colonies in Southeast Asia (Navajas et al, 2009). Nothing is known about their virulence on European bees outside Asia, but those haplotypes might be a new threat to consider for A. mellifera bees outside Asia.…”

Section: Varroa and Bee Host Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Varroamites and honey bee health: canVarroaexplain part of the colony losses?

Conte¹,

Ellis

Ritter³

2010

Apidologie

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-Since 2006, disastrous colony losses have been reported in Europe and North America. The causes of the losses were not readily apparent and have been attributed to overwintering mortalities and to a new phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. Most scientists agree that there is no single explanation for the extensive colony losses but that interactions between different stresses are involved. As the presence of Varroa in each colony places an important pressure on bee health, we here address the question of how Varroa contributes to the recent surge in honey bee colony losses.Varroa destructor / Apis mellifera / colony collapse disorder / winter losses / honey bee stressors

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“…At least 60 years ago, it made a host switch and now parasitizes several European and African races of A. mellifera [17]. Population studies indicate that there was a genetic bottleneck associated with the host switch to A. mellifera [18][19][20]. These studies revealed a remarkable absence of heterozygosity in the Varroa populations of Europe and USA collected on A. mellifera [21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These haplotypes also seem to be completely reproductively isolated from each other. Two routes of invasion of V. destructor into the Americas, and specifically into the USA, have been proposed based on the dates and places where each haplotype was first detected [18][19][20]. The J haplotype first shifted from A. cerana to A. mellifera in Japan during the last century, following the introduction of A. mellifera.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential gene expression in Varroa jacobsoni mites following a host shift to European honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Andino

Gribskov

Hunt

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM)

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Background: Varroa mites are widely considered the biggest honey bee health problem worldwide. Until recently, Varroa jacobsoni has been found to live and reproduce only in Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) colonies, while V. destructor successfully reproduces in both A. cerana and A. mellifera colonies. However, we have identified an island population of V. jacobsoni that is highly destructive to A. mellifera, the primary species used for pollination and honey production. The ability of these populations of mites to cross the host species boundary potentially represents an enormous threat to apiculture, and is presumably due to genetic variation that exists among populations of V. jacobsoni that influences gene expression and reproductive status. In this work, we investigate differences in gene expression between populations of V. jacobsoni reproducing on A. cerana and those either reproducing or not capable of reproducing on A. mellifera, in order to gain insight into differences that allow V. jacobsoni to overcome its normal species tropism.Results: We sequenced and assembled a de novo transcriptome of V. jacobsoni. We also performed a differential gene expression analysis contrasting biological replicates of V. jacobsoni populations that differ in their ability to reproduce on A. mellifera. Using the edgeR, EBSeq and DESeq R packages for differential gene expression analysis, we found 287 differentially expressed genes (FDR ≤ 0.05), of which 91% were up regulated in mites reproducing on A. mellifera. In addition, mites found reproducing on A. mellifera showed substantially more variation in expression among replicates. We searched for orthologous genes in public databases and were able to associate 100 of these 287 differentially expressed genes with a functional description. Conclusions: There is differential gene expression between the two mite groups, with more variation in gene expression among mites that were able to reproduce on A. mellifera. A small set of genes showed reduced expression in mites on the A. mellifera host, including putative transcription factors and digestive tract developmental genes. The vast majority of differentially expressed genes were up-regulated in this host. This gene set showed enrichment for genes associated with mitochondrial respiratory function and apoptosis, suggesting that mites on this host may be experiencing higher stress, and may be less optimally adapted to parasitize it. Some genes involved in reproduction and oogenesis were also overexpressed, which should be further studied in regards to this host shift.

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New Asian types ofVarroa destructor:a potential new threat for world apiculture

Cited by 78 publications

References 27 publications

Varroa destructor changes its cuticular hydrocarbons to mimic new hosts

Varroa destructor changes its cuticular hydrocarbons to mimic new hosts

Varroamites and honey bee health: canVarroaexplain part of the colony losses?

Differential gene expression in Varroa jacobsoni mites following a host shift to European honey bees (Apis mellifera)

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