No abstract

The populations of wild honey bee (Apis mellifera ) colonies in the USA were decimated after the arrival of a parasitic mite Varroa destructor in the 1980s. However, in some places, wild honey bee colonies survived. In this 3-year study, we analyzed 32 wild and 11 managed colonies in Southwestern Pennsylvania for their maternal genetic ancestries and their levels of Nosema spp. infection. We detected nine mtDNA haplotypes in the 32 wild colonies sampled: six belonged to the Eastern European lineage (C) and three belonged to the Western European lineage (M). We found only three mtDNA haplotypes in the eleven managed colonies sampled, all belonging to the C lineage. Infection levels of N. ceranae were relatively high and fluctuated over time while those of N. apis remained relatively low and constant. There were no differences in N. ceranae or N. apis levels between wild and managed colonies. This study shows that wild honey bee colonies can represent old lineages despite being susceptible to Nosema .

A series of fourteen 2-aryl-3-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-pyrido[3,2-e][1,3]thiazin-4-ones was prepared at room temperature by T3P-mediated cyclization of N-phenyl-C-aryl imines with thionicotinic acid, two difficult substrates. The reactions were operationally simple, did not require specialized equipment or anhydrous solvents, could be performed as either two or three component reactions, and gave moderate–good yields as high as 63%. This provides ready access to N-phenyl compounds in this family, which have been generally difficult to prepare. As part of the study, the first crystal structure of neutral thionicotinic acid is also reported, and showed the molecule to be in the form of the thione tautomer. Additionally, the synthesized compounds were tested against T. brucei, the causative agent of Human African Sleeping Sickness. Screening at 50 µM concentration showed that five of the compounds strongly inhibited growth and killed parasites.