Evolutionarily diverse origins of deformed wing viruses in western honey bees.

Novel transmission routes can allow infectious diseases to spread, often with devastating consequences. Ectoparasitic varroa mites vector a diversity of RNA viruses, having switched hosts from the eastern to western honey bees (Apis cerana to Apis mellifera). They provide an opportunity to explore how novel transmission routes shape disease epidemiology. As the principal driver of the spread of deformed wing viruses (mainly DWV-A and DWV-B), varroa infestation has also driven global honey bee health declines. The more virulent DWV-B strain has been replacing the original DWV-A strain in many regions over the past two decades. Yet, how these viruses originated and spread remains poorly understood. Here, we use a phylogeographic analysis based on whole-genome data to reconstruct the origins and demography of DWV spread. We found that, rather than reemerging in western honey bees after varroa switched hosts, as suggested by previous work, DWV-A most likely originated in East Asia and spread in the mid-20th century. It also showed a massive population size expansion following the varroa host switch. By contrast, DWV-B was most likely acquired more recently from a source outside East Asia and appears absent from the original varroa host. These results highlight the dynamic nature of viral adaptation, whereby a vector's host switch can give rise to competing and increasingly virulent disease pandemics. The evolutionary novelty and rapid global spread of these host-virus interactions, together with observed spillover into other species, illustrate how increasing globalization poses urgent threats to biodiversity and food security.

Mutations associated with pyrethroid resistance in Varroa mite, a parasite of honey bees, are widespread across the United States.

BACKGROUND: Managed honey bees are key pollinators of many crops and play an essential role in the United States food production. For more than ten years, beekeepers in the United States have been reporting high rates of colony losses. One of the drivers of these losses is the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Maintaining healthy honey bee colonies in the United States is dependent on a successful control of this mite. The pyrethroid tau-fluvalinate (Apistan®) was among the first synthetic varroacides registered in the United States. With over 20 years of use, mites resistant to Apistan® have emerged, and so it is unsurprising that treatment failures have been reported. Resistance to tau-fluvalinate in US mite populations is associated with point mutations at position 925 of the voltage-gated sodium channel. RESULTS: Here, we have generated a distribution map of pyrethroid resistance alleles in Varroa samples collected from US apiaries in 2016 and 2017, using a high throughput allelic discrimination assay based on TaqMan®. Our results evidence that knockdown resistance (kdr)-type mutations are widely distributed in Varroa populations across the country showing high variability among apiaries. We used these data to predict the phenotype of the mites in the case of treatments with pyrethroids. CONCLUSION: We highlight the relevance of monitoring the resistance in mite populations to achieve an efficient control of this pest. We also put forward the benefits of implementing this methodology to provide data for designing pest management programs aiming to control Varroa. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Development of a Honey Bee RNA Virus Vector Based on the Genome of a Deformed Wing Virus.

We developed a honey bee RNA-virus vector based on the genome of a picorna-like Deformed wing virus (DWV), the main viral pathogen of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). To test the potential of DWV to be utilized as a vector, the 717 nt sequence coding for the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), flanked by the peptides targeted by viral protease, was inserted into an infectious cDNA clone of DWV in-frame between the leader protein and the virus structural protein VP2 genes. The in vitro RNA transcripts from egfp-tagged DWV cDNA clones were infectious when injected into honey bee pupae. Stable DWV particles containing genomic RNA of the recovered DWV with egfp inserts were produced, as evidenced by cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation. These particles were infectious to honey bee pupae when injected intra-abdominally. Fluorescent microscopy showed GFP expression in the infected cells and Western blot analysis demonstrated accumulation of free eGFP rather than its fusions with DWV leader protein (LP) and/or viral protein (VP) 2. Analysis of the progeny egfp-tagged DWV showed gradual accumulation of genome deletions for egfp, providing estimates for the rate of loss of a non-essential gene an insect RNA virus genome during natural infection.