Effects of Varroa destructor on temperature and humidity conditions and expression of energy metabolism genes in infested honeybee colonies.
Genet Mol Res
; 15(3)2016 Sep 23.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27706787
Varroa destructor mites pose an increasing global threat to the apicultural industry and agricultural ecology; however, the issue of whether certain environmental factors reflect the level of mite infection is far from resolved. Here, a wireless sensor network (WSN) system was used to examine how V. destructor, which has vital impacts on honeybee (Apis mellifera) health and survival, affects the temperature and humidity of honeybee hives in a field experiment. This approach may facilitate early identification of V. destructor in hives, and thus enable timely remedial action. Using quantitative PCR, we also evaluated the expression of two genes, adipokinetic hormone (AKH) and adipokinetic hormone receptor (AKHR).The results showed that temperature in highly infested broods was higher than that in broods with low infestation. Moreover, mite infection in honeybee colonies was positively correlated with temperature but negatively correlated with humidity (P < 0.05). Similar to previous observations, quantitative analysis suggested that the expression levels of AKH and AKHR from honeybees with low infection were significantly higher than those from bees with high infection (P < 0.01). These results showed that the expression levels of these genes in colonies with high mite infestation were closely associated with changes in hive temperature and humidity. This study demonstrates that Varroa infection not only causes changes in temperature inside honeybee colonies, but also affects the expression of honeybee energy metabolism genes.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Temperature
/
Bees
/
Gene Expression Regulation
/
Energy Metabolism
/
Varroidae
/
Humidity
/
Mite Infestations
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Genet Mol Res
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
/
GENETICA
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
Brazil