10.5061/DRYAD.V15DV420F
Dobelmann, Jana
0000-0002-6742-0945
University of Ulm
Felden, Antoine
Victoria University of Wellington
Lester, Phil
Victoria University of Wellington
Data for: An invasive ant increases deformed wing virus loads in honey bees
Dryad
dataset
2022
deformed wing virus
Argentine ant
Honey bee
invasion
pathogen dynamics
FOS: Biological sciences
Royal Society of New Zealand
https://ror.org/04tajb587
16-VUW-05
2022-12-09T00:00:00Z
2022-12-09T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7414241
10233890 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The majority of invasive species are best known for their effects as
predators. However, many introduced predators may also be substantial
reservoirs for pathogens. Honey bee-associated viruses are found in
various arthropod species including invasive ants. We examined how the
globally invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), which can reach high
densities and infest beehives, is associated with pathogen dynamics in
honey bees. Viral loads of Deformed wing virus (DWV), which has been
linked to millions of beehive deaths around the globe, and black queen
cell virus significantly increased in bees when invasive ants were
present. Microsporidian and trypanosomatid infections, which are more
bee-specific, were not affected by ant invasion. The bee virome in autumn
revealed that DWV was the predominant virus with the highest infection
levels and that no ant-associated viruses were infecting bees. Viral
spillback from ants could increase infections in bees. In addition, ant
attacks could pose a significant stressor to bee colonies that may affect
virus susceptibility. These viral dynamics are a hidden effects of ant
pests, which could have a significant impact on disease emergence in an
economically important pollinator. Our study contributes to unravel a
perhaps overlooked effect of species invasions: changes in pathogen
dynamics.
In the austral summer of January 2019, 18 beehives from an Argentine
ant-free apiary were moved into six sites in the Northland region, New
Zealand, half with known Argentine ant incursions, placing three hives in
each site. Monthly collections of adult worker bees from brood frames took
place from January until August, except July. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) data
was generated from reverse transcribed total RNA extracted from honey bees
or Argentine ants on a StepOne™ Real-Time PCR cycler or a QuantStudio 7
Real-Time PCR System, respectively. Survival data was generated from field
observations. RNA-seq data originates from Illumina 1.9 Hi-seq 100 base
pair (bp) paired-end sequencing of total RNA from honey bees. Reads were
aligned to the honey bee reference genome (Amel_HAv3.1) in HISAT2 2.1.0 to
exclude host-derived reads. Unaligned reads were de novo assembled in
Trinity 2.9.1 and transcript counts generated using a pipeline integrated
with the Trinity package
(www.github.com/trinityrnaseq/trinityrnaseq/blob/master/util/abundance_estimates_to_matrix.pl). Further details of the experimental setup and method used can be found in the accompanying manuscript.
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