TY - JOUR A1 - Doublet, V. A1 - Poeschl, Y. A1 - Gogol-Döring, A. A1 - Alaux, C. A1 - Annoscia, D. A1 - Aurori, C. A1 - Barribeau, S. M. A1 - Bedoya-Reina, O. C. A1 - Brown, M. J. F. A1 - Bull, J. C. A1 - Flenniken, M. L. A1 - Galbraith, D. A. A1 - Genersch, E. A1 - Gisder, S. A1 - Grosse, I. A1 - Holt, H. L. A1 - Hultmark, D. A1 - Lattorff, H. M. G. A1 - Le Conte, Y. A1 - Manfredini, F. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Moritz, R. F. A. A1 - Nazzi, F. A1 - Niño, E. L. A1 - Nowick, K. A1 - Van Rij, R. P. A1 - Paxton, R. J. A1 - Grozinger, C. M. T1 - Unity in defence: honeybee workers exhibit conserved molecular responses to diverse pathogens N2 - Background: Organisms typically face infection by diverse pathogens, and hosts are thought to have developed specific responses to each type of pathogen they encounter. The advent of transcriptomics now makes it possible to test this hypothesis and compare host gene expression responses to multiple pathogens at a genome-wide scale. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of multiple published and new transcriptomes using a newly developed bioinformatics approach that filters genes based on their expression profile across datasets. Thereby, we identified common and unique molecular responses of a model host species, the honey bee (Apis mellifera), to its major pathogens and parasites: the Microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, RNA viruses, and the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, which transmits viruses. Results: We identified a common suite of genes and conserved molecular pathways that respond to all investigated pathogens, a result that suggests a commonality in response mechanisms to diverse pathogens. We found that genes differentially expressed after infection exhibit a higher evolutionary rate than non-differentially expressed genes. Using our new bioinformatics approach, we unveiled additional pathogen-specific responses of honey bees; we found that apoptosis appeared to be an important response following microsporidian infection, while genes from the immune signalling pathways, Toll and Imd, were differentially expressed after Varroa/virus infection. Finally, we applied our bioinformatics approach and generated a gene co-expression network to identify highly connected (hub) genes that may represent important mediators and regulators of anti-pathogen responses. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis generated a comprehensive overview of the host metabolic and other biological processes that mediate interactions between insects and their pathogens. We identified key host genes and pathways that respond to phylogenetically diverse pathogens, representing an important source for future functional studies as well as offering new routes to identify or generate pathogen resilient honey bee stocks. The statistical and bioinformatics approaches that were developed for this study are broadly applicable to synthesize information across transcriptomic datasets. These approaches will likely have utility in addressing a variety of biological questions. KW - Coexpression KW - Apis mellifera KW - Nosema KW - Varroa destructor KW - DWV KW - IAPV KW - RNA virus KW - Meta-analysis KW - Transcriptomics PY - 2017 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-410439 DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-017-3597-6 SN - 1471-2164 VL - 18 SP - 207 EP - 224 AN - OPUS4-41043 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trimpert, J. A1 - Groenke, N. A1 - Jenckel, M. A1 - He, Shulin A1 - Kunec, D. A1 - Szpara, M.L. A1 - Spatz, S.J. A1 - Osterrieder, N. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - A phylogenomic analysis of Marek's disease virus (MDV) reveals independent paths to virulence in Eurasia and North America N2 - Virulence determines the impact a pathogen has on the fitness of its host, yet current understanding of the evolutionary origins and causes of virulence of many pathogens is surprisingly incomplete. Here, we explore the evolution of Marek’s disease virus (MDV), a herpesvirus commonly afflicting chickens and rarely other avian species. The history of MDV in the 20th century represents an important case study in the evolution of virulence. The severity of MDV infection in chickens has been rising steadily since the adoption of intensive farming techniques and vaccination programs in the 1950s and 1970s, respectively. It has remained uncertain, however, which of these factors is causally more responsible for the observed increase in virulence of circulating viruses. We conducted a phylogenomic study to understand the evolution of MDV in the context of dramatic changes to poultry farming and disease control. Our analysis reveals evidence of geographical structuring of MDV strains, with reconstructions supporting the emergence of virulent viruses independently in North America and Eurasia. Of note, the emergence of virulent viruses appears to coincide approximately with the introduction of comprehensive vaccination on both continents. The time-dated phylogeny also indicated that MDV has a mean evolutionary rate of ~1.6 × 10−5 substitutions per site per year. An examination of gene-linked mutations did not identify a strong association between mutational variation and virulence phenotypes, indicating that MDV may evolve readily and rapidly under strong selective pressures and that multiple genotypic pathways may underlie virulence adaptation in MDV. KW - Sesistance KW - Disease KW - Emergence KW - Evolution KW - Virulence PY - 2017 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-429054 DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12515 SN - 1752-4571 VL - 10 IS - 10 SP - 1091 EP - 1101 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd. AN - OPUS4-42905 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Natsopoulou, M. E. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Doublet, V. A1 - Frey, E. A1 - Rosenkranz, P. A1 - Paxton, R. J. T1 - The virulent, emerging genotype B of Deformed wing virus is closely linked to overwinter honeybee worker loss N2 - Bees are considered to be threatened globally, with severe overwinter losses of the most important commercial pollinator, the Western honeybee, a major concern in the Northern Hemisphere. Emerging infectious diseases have risen to prominence due to their temporal correlation with colony losses. Among these is Deformed wing virus (DWV), which has been frequently linked to colony mortality. We now provide evidence of a strong statistical association between overwintering colony decline in the field and the presence of DWV genotype-B (DWV-B), a genetic variant of DWV that has recently been shown to be more virulent than the original DWV genotype-A. We link the prevalence of DWV-B directly to a quantitative measure of overwinter decline (workforce mortality) of honeybee colonies in the field. We demonstrate that increased prevalence of virus infection in individual bees is associated with higher overwinter mortality. We also observed a substantial reduction of infected colonies in the spring, suggesting that virus-infected individuals had died during the winter. Our findings demonstrate that DWV-B, plus possible A/B recombinants exhibiting DWV-B at PCR primer binding sites, may be a major cause of elevated overwinter honeybee loss. Its potential emergence in naïve populations of bees may have far-reaching ecological and economic impacts. KW - Honeybee KW - Loss KW - Virulence KW - Virus PY - 2017 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-410446 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05596-3 SN - 2045-2322 IS - 7 SP - 5242, 1 EP - 5242, 9 AN - OPUS4-41044 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -