Stable genetic diversity despite parasite and pathogen spread in honey bee colonies

Abstract

In the last decades, the rapid spread of diseases, such as varroosis and nosemosis, associated with massive honey bee colonies mortality around the world has significantly decreased the number and size of honey bee populations and possibly their genetic diversity. Here, we compare the genetic diversity of Iberian honey bee colonies in two samplings performed in 2006 and 2010 in relation to the presence of the pathogenic agents Nosema apis, Nosema ceranae, and Varroa destructor in order to determine whether parasite and pathogen spread in honey bee colonies reflects changes in genetic diversity. We found that the genetic diversity remained similar, while the incidence of N. ceranae increased and the incidence of N. apis and V. destructor decreased slightly. These results indicate that the genetic diversity was not affected by the presence of these pathogenic agents in the analyzed period. However, the two groups of colonies with and without Nosema/Varroa detected showed significant genetic differentiation (G test). A detailed analysis of the allelic segregation of microsatellite loci in Nosema/Varroa-negative colonies and parasitized ones revealed two outlier loci related to genes involved in immune response.

Urban ecosystem drives genetic diversity in feral honey bee

“…Statistically significant linkage disequilibrium was observed within 13 loci pairs in FCs and 10 loci pairs in MCs. Disequilibrium of the linkage for the pair A79/A7 was detected in both groups and in the MCs for the pair Ap249/B124 which are recognized as selectively adaptive loci 39 (Suppl. Table S6 ).…”

“…These two microsatellite loci, among all investigated loci, are considered to be selectively adaptive. The loci Ap249 and B124 are associated with genes involved in stress and immune responses, and could potentially reflect selective processes 39 . The Ap249 locus is linked to the protein-coding gene Aos1 related to a protein modification involved in various cellular processes that include stress, the immune response to infection, and plasticity of the nervous system, while the B124 locus is associated with the protein-coding gene dpr7 that encodes immunoglobulin proteins.…”

Prevalencia de <i>Nosema</i> spp. (Microsporidia: Nosematidae) en abejas africanizadas en Atenas, Costa Rica: número de esporas y nivel de infección durante la época lluviosa

“…Una de las enfermedades de mayor importancia económica a nivel mundial es la nosemosis (Fries, 2010;Hamiduzzaman et al, 2015;Muñoz et al, 2014;). Esta enfermedad es causada por dos especies de microsporidios, Nosema apis y Nosema ceranae, ambas forman esporas que infectan las células epiteliales del intestino de las abejas adultas (Botías et al, 2012;Bravo et al, 2014;Jara et al, 2015;Muñoz et al, 2014;Traver & Fell, 2011). Recientemente, se reportó en Uganda una nueva especie, Nosema neumanni, de la cual se tiene poca información (Chemurot et al, 2017).…”

Effect of Feeding by Aromatic Honey Anise (Pimpinella anisum) & Fennel (Foeniculum vulgar) and Marjoram (Origanum majorana) on Nosema Disease

“…Nosema disease is a parasitic disease infects adult bees of Apis mellifera L. (Milbrath et al, 2015) and belonging to fungal honeybee diseases (Moshaverinia et al, 2012). This disease causes great losses in honey bee colonies around the world (Jara et al, 2015 andRoussel et al, 2015). Also, Bromenshenk et al, 2010 revealed that Nosema disease was considered the most important reasons of CCD, Moreover, Malone et al, 2001 cleared that spores of Nosema lasted viability after feeding bees on multifloral honey.…”