RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Fertility costs of cryptic viral infections in a model social insect
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.05.04.442681
DO 10.1101/2021.05.04.442681
A1 Abigail Chapman
A1 Esmaeil Amiri
A1 Bin Han
A1 Erin McDermott
A1 Olav Rueppell
A1 David R Tarpy
A1 Leonard J Foster
A1 Alison McAfee
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/20/2021.05.04.442681.abstract
AB Declining insect populations emphasize the importance of understanding the drivers underlying reductions in insect fitness. Here, we investigated viruses as a threat to social insect reproduction, using honey bees as a model species. We report that in a sample of N = 93 honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens from nine beekeeping operations across a wide geographic range, high levels of natural viral infection are associated with decreased ovary mass. We confirmed this finding in an independent sample of N = 54 queens. Failed (poor quality) queens displayed higher levels of viral infection, reduced sperm viability, smaller ovaries, and altered ovary protein composition compared to healthy queens. We experimentally infected queens with Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) and found that the ovary masses of IAPV-injected queens were significantly smaller than control queens, demonstrating a causal relationship between viral infection and ovary size. Queens injected with IAPV also had significantly lower expression of vitellogenin, the main source of nutrition deposited into developing oocytes, and higher levels of heat-shock proteins (HSPs), which are part of the honey bee’s antiviral response. This work together shows that viral infections occurring naturally in the field are compromising queen reproductive success.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.