interspecies virus transmission involving economically important pollinators, including honey bees (Apis mellifera), has recently sparked research interests regarding pollinator health. Given that ants are common pests within apiaries in the southern U.S., the goals of this study were to (1) survey ants found within or near managed honey bee colonies, (2) document what interactions are occurring between ant pests and managed honey bees, and 3) determine if any of six commonly occurring honey bee-associated viruses were present in ants collected from within or far from apiaries. Ants belonging to 14 genera were observed interacting with managed honey bee colonies in multiple ways, most commonly by robbing sugar resources from within hives. We detected at least one virus in 89% of the ant samples collected from apiary sites (n = 57) and in 15% of ant samples collected at non-apiary sites (n = 20). We found that none of these ant samples tested positive for the replication of Deformed wing virus, Black queen cell virus, or israeli acute paralysis virus, however. future studies looking at possible virus transmission between ants and bees could determine whether ants can be considered mechanical vectors of honey bee-associated viruses, making them a potential threat to pollinator health.Positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses make up the largest group of honey bee (Apis mellifera) infecting pathogens worldwide 1 . Six of the most commonly occurring honey bee-associated viruses include Deformed wing virus (DWV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), and Sacbrood virus (SBV) 2 . Although the above listed are commonly referred to as honey bee viruses, previous research has detected these viruses in a number of other arthropods including the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor 3,4 , other insect pollinators such as hoverflies, bumblebees, and solitary bees [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] , and other Hymenopteran insects including some wasps and ants 15,20-28 . Both direct and indirect interactions between honey bees and some of these arthropods (e.g., foraging at the same floral resource, parasitism, and predation) have been proposed as possible routes in which interspecies transmission of honey bee-associated viruses can occur 29-32 .In the southern United States, ants are ubiquitous within apiaries and are common pests of managed honey bees 33 . However, despite their abundance, few studies have focused on identifying the ants that are common pests of honey bee colonies, or how ant pests interact with managed honey bees, especially in regards to interspecies virus transmission and the impact it might have on honey bee health. The first study to detect the replication of a honey bee-associated virus in an ant was conducted in France, where they found both the viral and replicative genome of Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) in the carpenter ant, Camponotus vagus 24 . A later study conducted in North Ame...

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens have a remarkable organ, the spermatheca, which successfully stores sperm for years after a virgin queen mates. This study uniquely characterized and quantified the transcriptomes of the spermathecae from mated and virgin honey bee queens via RNA sequencing to identify differences in mRNA levels based on a queen’s mating status. The transcriptome of drone semen was analyzed for comparison. Samples from three individual bees were independently analyzed for mated queen spermathecae and virgin queen spermathecae, and three pools of semen from ten drones each were collected from three separate colonies. In total, the expression of 11,233 genes was identified in mated queen spermathecae, 10,521 in virgin queen spermathecae, and 10,407 in drone semen. Using a cutoff log2 fold-change value of 2.0, we identified 212 differentially expressed genes between mated and virgin spermathecal queen tissues: 129 (1.4% of total) were up-regulated and 83 (0.9% of total) were down-regulated in mated queen spermathecae. Three genes in mated queen spermathecae, three genes in virgin queen spermathecae and four genes in drone semen that were more highly expressed in those tissues from the RNA sequencing data were further validated by real time quantitative PCR. Among others, expression of Kielin/chordin-like and Trehalase mRNAs was highest in the spermathecae of mated queens compared to virgin queen spermathecae and drone semen. Expression of the mRNA encoding Alpha glucosidase 2 was higher in the spermathecae of virgin queens. Finally, expression of Facilitated trehalose transporter 1 mRNA was greatest in drone semen. This is the first characterization of gene expression in the spermathecae of honey bee queens revealing the alterations in mRNA levels within them after mating. Future studies will extend to other reproductive tissues with the purpose of relating levels of specific mRNAs to the functional competence of honey bee queens and the colonies they head.

Mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPK) are critical mediators of cellular responses to pathogens and are activated in response to infection, but investigation is difficult in multi‐cell hosts due to developmental lethality of mutations. Mycobacterium marinum (Mm) is an established model for tuberculosis, a disease afflicting nearly one‐third of the world's population. We found that Mm‐infected Caenorhabditis elegans display >80% mortality, but nonpathogenic M. smegmatis cause <15% mortality. C. elegans display pathological changes when infected with Mm, whereas Mm mutants produce lower mortality, suggesting that C. elegans is a promising virulence model for detailed genetic analysis. C. elegans MAPK mutants are hypersusceptible to mycobacterial infection; however, the C. elegans TOL‐like, TGF‐β and insulin‐like pathway genes do not play important roles in susceptibility. We show that pathogenic mycobacteria inhibit MAPK‐mediated protection through the MAPK phosphatase gene and demonstrate that C. elegans provide a genetically tractable pathogenicity model of both the host and pathogen.

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 .

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) play a pivotal role in agricultural production worldwide, primarily through the provision of pollination services. But despite their importance, honey bee health continues to be threatened by many factors, including parasitization by the mite Varroa destructor, poor queen quality, and pesticide exposure. Accumulation of pesticides in the hive’s comb matrix over time inevitably leads to the exposure of developing brood, including queens, to wax contaminated with multiple compounds. Here, we characterized the brain transcriptome of queens that were reared in wax contaminated with pesticides commonly found in commercial beekeeping operations including either (a) a combination of 204,000 ppb of tau-fluvalinate and 91,900 ppb of coumaphos (“FC” group), (b) a combination of 9,800 ppb of chlorpyrifos and 53,700 ppb of chlorothalonil (“CC” group), or (c) 43,000 ppb of amitraz (“A” group). Control queens were reared in pesticide-free wax. Adult queens were allowed to mate naturally before being dissected. RNA isolated from brain tissue from three individuals per treatment group was sequenced using three technical replicates per queen. Using a cutoff log2 fold-change value of 1.5, we identified 247 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the FC group, 244 in the CC treatment group, and 668 in the A group, when comparing each group to the control. This is the first study to examine the sublethal effects of pesticides commonly found in wax (particularly amitraz) on the queen’s brain transcriptome. Future studies should further explore the relationship between our molecular findings and the queen’s behavior and physiology.