title: Drone exposure to the systemic insecticide Fipronil indirectly impairs queen reproductive potential.
abstract: A species that requires sexual reproduction but cannot reproduce is doomed to extinction. The important increasing loss of species emphasizes the ecological significance of elucidating the effects of environmental stressors, such as pesticides, on reproduction. Despite its special reproductive behavior, the honey bee was selected as a relevant and integrative environmental model because of its constant and diverse exposure to many stressors due to foraging activity. The widely used insecticide Fipronil, the use of which is controversial because of its adverse effects on honey bees, was chosen to expose captive drones in hives via syrup contaminated at 0.1 μg/L and gathered by foragers. Such environmental exposure led to decreased spermatozoa concentration and sperm viability coupled with an increased sperm metabolic rate, resulting in drone fertility impairment. Subsequently, unexposed queens inseminated with such sperm exhibited fewer spermatozoa with lower viability in their spermatheca, leaving no doubt about the detrimental consequences for the reproductive potential of queens, which are key for colony sustainability. These findings suggest that pesticides could contribute to declining honey bee populations through fertility impairment, as exemplified by Fipronil. More broadly, reproductive disorders should be taken into consideration when investigating the decline of other species.
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kairo
authors.affiliation: SUPAGRO, Laboratoire de Pathologies de l'Abeille, Montpellier, 34090, France.
authors.forename: Bertille
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Provost
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tchamitchian
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.|INAT, Laboratoire de Zoologie et d'Apiculture, Tunis, 1082, Tunisie.
authors.forename: Faten
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ben Abdelkader
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonnet
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cousin
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sénéchal
authors.affiliation: SUPAGRO, Laboratoire de Pathologies de l'Abeille, Montpellier, 34090, France.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benet
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 546 Biostatistiques &Processus Spatiaux, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kretzschmar
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Luc P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Belzunces
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 406 Abeilles &Environnement, Toxicologie Environnementale, Avignon, 84914, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Brunet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000187:drug effects; D007306:Insecticides / Q000633:toxicity; D008297:Male; D011720:Pyrazoles / Q000633:toxicity*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007306:Insecticides; D011720:Pyrazoles; C082360:fipronil