The ability to cause infection in a pathogenic fungus uncovers a new biological feature of honey bee viruses.
We demonstrated that honey bee viruses including Deformed wing virus (DWV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV) and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) could infect and replicate in the fungal pathogen Ascosphaera apis that causes honey bee chalkbrood disease, revealing a novel biological feature of honey bee viruses. The phylogenetic analysis show that viruses of fungal and honey bee origins form two clusters in the phylogenetic trees distinctly and that host range of honey bee viruses is dynamic. Further studies are warranted to investigate the impact of the viruses on the fitness of their fungal host and phenotypic effects the virus-fungus combination has on honey bee hosts.
College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China; USDA-ARS, Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
Zhiguo
Z
Li
College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China; College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, China.
Songkun
S
Su
USDA-ARS, Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
Michele
M
Hamilton
College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China.
Limin
L
Yan
USDA-ARS, Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. Electronic address: judy.chen@ars.usda.gov.
Yanping
Y
Chen
D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000821:virology*; D001516:Bees / Q000821:virology*; D056629:Dicistroviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D007304:Insect Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D012367:RNA, Viral
Ascosphaera apis; Chalkbrood; Honey bee viruses; Infection; Replication