TY - JOUR A1 - Tauber, J. P. A1 - Einspanier, R. A1 - Evans, J. D. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Co-incubation of dsRNA reduces proportion of viable spores of Ascosphaera apis , a honey bee fungal pathogen N2 - There are viral, fungal, bacterial and trypanosomal pathogens that negatively impact the individual and superorganismal health of the western honey bee. One fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis , affects larvae and causes the disease chalkbrood. A previous genome analysis of As. apis revealed that its genome encodes for RNA interference genes, similar to other fungi and eukaryotes. Here, we examined whether As. apis -targeting double-stranded RNA species could disrupt the germination of As. apis. We observed that when spores were co-incubated with As. apis -targeting dsRNA, fewer spores were activated for germination, suggesting an uptake of exogenous genetic material at the very onset of germination and consequent damage to essential transcripts needed for germination. Overall, these results indicate that the causative agent of chalkbrood disease, As. apis , can be successfully targeted using an RNAi-based strategy. KW - DsRNA KW - Honey bee KW - Pathogen KW - Ascosphaera apis KW - RNAi KW - Control PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2020.1754090 VL - 59 IS - 5 SP - 791 EP - 799 AN - OPUS4-52881 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brusamarello-Santos, L. C. C. A1 - Alberton, D. A1 - Valdameri, G. A1 - Camilios-Neto, D. A1 - Covre, R. A1 - Lopes, K. d. P. A1 - Zibetti Tadra-Sfeir, M. A1 - Faoro, H. A1 - Adele Monteiro, R. A1 - Barbosa-Silva, A. A1 - Broughton, William John A1 - Oliveira Pedrosa, F. A1 - Wassem, R. A1 - de Souza, E.M. T1 - Modulation of defence and iron homeostasis genes in rice roots by the diazotrophic endophyte Herbaspirillum seropedicae N2 - Rice is staple food of nearly half the world’s population. Rice yields must therefore increase to feed ever larger populations. By colonising rice and other plants, Herbaspirillum spp. stimulate plant growthand productivity. However the molecular factors involved are largely unknown. To further explore this interaction, the transcription profiles of Nipponbare rice roots inoculated with Herbaspirillum seropedicae were determined by RNA-seq. Mapping the 104 million reads against the Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare genome produced 65 million unique mapped reads that represented 13,840 transcripts each with at least two-times coverage. About 7.4% (1,014) genes were differentially regulated and of these 255 changed expression levels more than two times. Several of the repressed genes encoded proteins related to plant defence (e.g. a putative probenazole inducible protein), plant disease resistance as well as enzymes involved in flavonoid and isoprenoid synthesis. Genes related to the synthesis and efflux of phytosiderophores (PS) and transport of PS-iron complexes were induced by the bacteria. These data suggest that the bacterium represses the rice defence system while concomitantly activating iron uptake. Transcripts of H. seropedicae were also detected amongst which transcripts of genes involved in nitrogen fixation, cell motility and cell wall synthesis were the most expressed. KW - Herbaspirillum seropedicae KW - Pathogen KW - Rice KW - qPCR KW - Genome PY - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-490122 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 9 SP - 10573-1 EP - 10573-15 PB - Nature CY - London AN - OPUS4-49012 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Emerging Viruses in Bees: From Molecules toEmerging bee viruses: from molecules to host and vector ecology Ecology N2 - Technical advances in the study of molecular evolution have crystallized the fundamental insight that many bee pathogens evolve and adapt over timescales that overlap with host ecology. At the same time, the role played by bee host community ecology is increasingly being appreciated in host-parasite interactions. Here, we focus on Deformed wing virus (DWV) and present recent studies exploring the link between virulence, DWV genetic diversity and changes to host ecology - namely the arrival of an invasive ectoparasite, the Varroa destructor mite, which vectors viruses between honeybees. Specifically, we show how V. destructor may have created conditions for the emergence of more virulent strains of DWV in the western honeybee, Apis mellifera. We present a molecule-to-ecology framework to help interpret findings and to guide future hypotheses, emphasizing the role of molecular interactions between viruses and host immunity as drivers of change at the bee population level. T2 - International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI2018) CY - Guaruja, Brazil DA - 05.08.2018 KW - Disease KW - Virus KW - Emerging KW - Pathogen KW - Bee PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-47156 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Exploring RNA viruses in edible insects: a case study using cockroaches, termites N2 - Our understanding of RNA viruses from edible insects is minimal at best, with studies largely focusing on model insect species and those associated with obvious signs of disease. This represents a considerable gap in understanding, given the growing role of insects as a source of food and feed, as well as the more general relevance of insects in agriculture and health. Illness due to entomophagy is rare but well documented, including fatal cases following the consumption of termites. Termites are eaten commonly in tropical Asia, Africa and South America, and are among the insects with the highest recorded fat content. There are many species of termites, with a wide range of diets and habitats centering around the consumption of wood and soil substrates. In this study, we report the results from a survey of more than 30 cockroach and termite transcriptomes, with the aim of understanding the diversity and evolution of RNA viruses as well as other potentially pathogenic organisms that are associated with this relevant but somewhat overlooked group of insects. We discuss our results in the context of the possible zoonotic risk posed by insects, as well as in the context of emerging viral and other disease threats that may face insects being reared at industrial scales. T2 - 4th International INSECTA 2018 Conference CY - Giessen, Germany DA - 05.09.2018 KW - Edible insects KW - Emerging KW - Virus KW - Pathogen KW - Termite KW - Cockroach PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-47157 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CHAP A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Wilfert, L. A1 - Paxton, R.J. A1 - Brown, M.J.F. T1 - Emerging viruses in bees: From molecules to ecology N2 - Emerging infectious diseases arise as a result of novel interactions between populations of hosts and pathogens, and can threaten the health and wellbeing of the entire spectrum of biodiversity. Bees andtheir viruses area case in point. However, detailed knowledge of the ecological factors and evolutionary forces that drive disease emergence in bees and other host–pathogen communities is surprisingly lacking. In this review, we build on the fundamental insight that viruses evolve and adapt over timescales that overlap with host ecology. At the same time, we integrate the role of host community ecology, including community structure and composition, biodiversity loss, and human driven disturbance, all of which represent significant factors in bee virus ecology. Both of these evolutionary and ecological perspectives represent major advances but, in most cases, it remains unclear how evolutionary forces actually operate across different biological scales (e.g., from cell to ecosystem). We present a molecule-to-ecology framework to help address these issues, emphasizing the role of molecular mechanisms as keybottom-up drivers of change at higher ecological scales. We consider the bee–virus system to be an ideal one in which to apply this framework. Unlike many other animal models, bees constitute a well characterized and accessible multispecies assemblage, whose populations and interspecific interactions can be experimentally manipulated and monitored in high resolution across space and time to provide robust tests of prevailing theory. KW - Emerging KW - Virus KW - Pathogen KW - Bee KW - Disease PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aivir.2018.02.008 SN - 0065-3527 VL - 101 SP - 251 EP - 291 AN - OPUS4-46324 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Esparza-Mora, M. Alejandra A1 - Mazumdar, Tilottama A1 - Jiang, Shixiong A1 - Radek, Renate A1 - Thiem, Julian N. A1 - Feng, Linshan A1 - Petrašiūnaitė, Vesta A1 - Banasiak, Ronald A1 - Golian, Marek A1 - Gleske, Melanie A1 - Christophe, Lucas A1 - Springer, Andreas A1 - Buellesbach, Jan A1 - McMahon, Dino T1 - Defensive behavior is linked to altered surface chemistry following infection in a termite society N2 - The care-kill response determines whether a sick individual will be treated or eliminated from an insect society, but little is known about the physiological underpinnings of this process. We exploited the stepwise infection dynamics of an entomopathogenic fungus in a termite to explore how care-kill transitions occur, and identify the chemical cues behind these shifts. We found collective responses towards pathogen-injected individuals to vary according to severity and timing of pathogen challenge, with elimination, via cannibalism, occurring sooner in response to a severe active infection. However, injection with inactivated fungal blastospores also resulted in increased albeit delayed cannibalism, even though it did not universally cause host death. This indicates that the decision to eliminate an individual is triggered before pathogen viability or terminal disease status has been established. We then compared the surface chemistry of differently challenged individuals, finding increased amounts of long-chained methyl-branched alkanes with similar branching patterns in individuals injected with both dead and viable fungal blastospores, with the latter showing the largest increase. This coincided with the highest amounts of observed cannibalism as well as signs of severe moribundity. Our study provides new mechanistic insight into the emergent collective behaviors involved in the disease defense of a termite society. KW - Termite KW - Social Immunity KW - CHC KW - Pathogen PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-594468 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London AN - OPUS4-59446 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -